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Chess Life Online 2012 November Chess Federation President Meets Vladimir Pozner
Chess Life Online 2012 November Chess Federation President Meets Vladimir Pozner | Chess Federation President Meets Vladimir Pozner |
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| November 18, 2012 | |
 US Chess Federation President Ruth I. Haring met legendary Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner on 14 November in Washington, DC at the Sarah Carey Forum usrussiacivilsociety.org/ organized by the Eurasia Foundation www.eurasia.org. "I was very impressed by Vladimir Pozner's knowledge of the chess world. He knew the ins and outs of chess politics. It was an enormous pleasure to meet him," said Ruth I. Haring. In the 1980s, Vladimir Pozner and Phil Donahue co-hosted a series of televised discussions between audiences in the Soviet Union and the US. These “spacebridge” programs were unprecedented in that they gave ordinary Russians and Americans a forum for connection at a time when there were few opportunities for direct interaction. Pozner and Donahue reunited after the fall of the Soviet Union to co-host the weekly issues-oriented roundtable Pozner/Donahue on CNBC from 1991 to 1994. Eurasia Foundation brought Vladimir Pozner and Phil Donahue back together to discuss US-Russian cooperation. Even as US-Russia relations have frayed, Pozner and Donahue reaffirmed the value of citizen engagement. Drawing on their historic broadcasts, Pozner and Donahue discussed that extraordinary breakthrough in the 1980s and reflected on what lessons it might offer today. Following a conversation with Pozner and Donahue that Marvin Kalb moderated, US Ambassador John Beyrle, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Anna Koshman, executive director of the Russian Alliance of Independent Regional Publishers, and Hedrick Smith, author of The Russians, also participated. Ms. Haring also participated in Eurasia Foundation's two-day conference, “US-Russia Civil Society Partnership Program: Moving Forward Together" on 15 and 16 November, also in Washington. The conference brought together more than 90 civil society experts from the US and Russia to work out concrete plans for collaboration. Given the US Chess Federation's priority on Scholastic Chess and increasing female participation in chess, Ms. Haring participated in the Education and Youth and the Gender Equity Working Groups. |