U.S.-Russia Collaboration on Health

Despite a decade of pre-financial-crisis economic growth, Russia continues to suffer from health challenges unprecedented for an advanced industrial society in peacetime. The persistence of these maladies remains a mystery, and their magnitude and nature are reported unevenly in the Western media. Recent Kremlin domestic health policy initiatives hint at promising new directions. The United States could emerge as an effective partner to capitalize on new Russian policy ideas and decelerate worrisome Russian health trends. If a stable, prosperous, well-adjusted Russia best serves U.S. national interests, then it certainly makes sense to do so. The July 2009 Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Public Health and Medical Science, signed in Moscow at the Obama-Medvedev summit, should lend new and important momentum to the concept of bilateral health collaboration.