"No Assistant Secretary ever suggested that to me before. I don't think I'd ever approached the question of writing the president United States a personal message from overseas. But Strobe believed that my judgment would be useful to the President, and that was, in itself, an honor." - Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering

The Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies at the Middlebury Institute introduces The Ambassadorial Series: Deans of U.S. - Russia Diplomacy, Part Two of The Ambassadorial Series. Part Two consists of six plus hours of conversations with Ambassadors Jack F. Matlock, Thomas R. Pickering, and James F. Collins about crucial events and developments in U.S.-Russia relations. Focusing on the 1990s – from the disintegration of the USSR to President Putin's ascent to Russia’s highest office a decade later, Part Two, hosted by Dr. Hanna Notte, continues to offer firsthand accounts and analyses of the cataclysmic changes that transformed Russian politics and society.