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[Firat Gelbal/The Daily Pennsylvanian] State Department official Allen Greenberg speaks to students about the state of U.S.-Russian relations. Greenberg said that Russia could stand to improve its stance on democracy and human rights.

One of the State Department's top advisers on Russia believes the former Soviet state still sees everything as a "zero-sum game."

In the midst of a reappraisal of U.S.-Russian relations, Allen Greenberg gave an insider's view of the changes taking place in the world's largest country to a small group of Penn students yesterday afternoon.

Greenberg is the senior political officer for the State Department's Office of Russian Affairs.

He characterized the relationship between the United States and Russia as strong. However, there are "four key areas where we have ... unfulfilled potential," he said.

These four areas are Russia's stance on weapons of mass destruction, the relationship between Russia and its neighbors, the U.S.-Russian economic relationship and Russia's standpoint on democracy and human rights.

Underlying these difficulties is the Russian perception that its relationships with the outside world are dominated by a "zero-sum mentality," Greenberg said, meaning that as the United States gains power, Russia loses it, and vice versa.

This, he said, has lead Russian President Vladimir Putin to centralize power in his hands, undermining the developments Russia made toward democracy and a free-market economy following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Greenberg supported his argument by drawing on recent events relating to the Kremlin's prosecution of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Khodorkovsky -- an oil magnate and prominent Russian businessman -- was arrested in 2003 for tax evasion in a move widely considered by Western analysts to have been motivated by a desire to stop potential political opponents of Putin.

"Democracy in Russia matters not only for its own sake, but in the context" of its relationship with the United States, Greenberg said.

He added, however, that Russia's economy is currently growing at a fast pace and that Russia is "on par with China as an attractive place to do business."

Greenberg's audience consisted of about 25 students and professors, the vast majority of whom were affiliated with Wharton.

Potential MBA student Slaba Breusov -- a native Russian -- was not impressed with the event and called it "superficial" after having asked Greenberg about the reasons behind an American ban on Russian caviar imports.

However, Wharton junior Mariya Cherches walked away with a positive impression.

Though she called Greenberg's presentation overly diplomatic, she found the topic intriguing.

Greenberg appeared at the behest of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business and Wharton's Lauder Institute.

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