Margaret Warner (The News Hour) is doing a good job of setting the scene for President Obama’s visit to Russia next week.  Talking in Moscow with a cross-section of media, government spokesmen, activists and Kremlin-watchers, Warner’s reports this week paint a fairly nuanced picture.  Stability but arbitrary authority.  Economic growth (until last year) but great social disparities.  Outspoken voices but widespread public complacency.  Russia sometimes seems capable of continuing on such a course indefinitely.

But for her natural resources and nuclear weapons, Russia would not be a very compelling stop on Obama’s itinerary.  Yet these two exceptions, and the instability along much of the vast periphery of Russia and its “near abroad,” change everything.  How Russia acts internationally, when domestically capable of such arbitrariness, is of great relevance and concern.

Yulia Latynina adds another useful perspective, describing in today’s Moscow Times how Russia’s new oil deal with China is more disadvantageous to Russia than the prospective deal that helped earn Khodorkovsky Putin’s ire.  Another indicator that what would seem to be in Russia’s best interest may not be the road Russia travels.

Obama’s visit should tell us a lot about how we should view Russia.