Sergei Khrushchev, son of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and a senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute, writes and lectures on Russian economic and political reforms. Against the backdrop of Vice President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Moscow, he talked with McClatchy-Tribune foreign-affairs columnist John C. Bersia.

A tale of two unique U.S. presidential candidates has ended, and one of them – Barack Obama – will inherit, along with the White House, what has been called the most dangerous of times.
Against that general backdrop, it should be noted that we also face the best of times in terms of the positive changes [...]

The rare moment of national unity that Hurricane Gustav delivered, with the usual politicking on pause, reminded me of another time, when Americans more commonly joined together in a bipartisan manner.
It should not take the potential drowning of one of the United States’ most storied cities – or other crises, at home and abroad – [...]

Now that both the Democratic and Republican presidential-campaign teams have a strong component of foreign-policy expertise, how will they use it?
They had better act quickly, because time is short. During the few months before Election Day, voters should demand that the presidential contenders address the international challenges facing the United States with clarity and [...]

To unify Democrats, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois – should he secure the party’s nomination – will have to offer U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York the vice presidency. And that combination, though improbable, would be the party’s dream team. On the Republican side, the strongest running mate for U.S. Sen. John McCain [...]