Twenty years ago, the Soviet Union's military retreated from Afghanistan in disarray. Their bloody nine-year conflict has often been called “Russia’s Vietnam.” Now some Russians see America and its NATO allies heading for a similar destiny. To discuss this alarming possibility is Sergei Khrushchev, the son of the former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. (Sergei’s father died in 1971.) Sergei, a fellow in international affairs at Brown University, joins a conversation with the BBC’s Russia reporter Olexiy Solohubenko and James Joyner of the Atlantic Council.

In a move that has aggravated global tensions, NATO begins a month of exercises in Georgia today, despite the fact that Georgia is not a member of NATO. The war games will involve more than 1,100 soldiers from NATO countries in "crisis response" field exercises. Georgia’s military was devastated in a five-day war with Russia last year, and the country continues to provoke Moscow, even accusing the Russians of backing a military coup last week to overthrow President Mikhail Saakashvili's government. Now Georgia is claiming that the mutiny was meant to disrupt NATO's exercises. Steven Eke is a Russian Affairs Analyst for our partner, the BBC, and he joins The Takeaway with more.

For more on the situation in Georgia, watch the video below.

Russia declared an end to its ten-year operation in the autonomous republic of Chechnya today. The decade long struggle between the nations brought ten of thousands of Russian troops to the region to fight separatist movements. It is unclear how many troops will remain in the now stable country. The move is a step towards normalizing the relations between the two countries. For more we turn to Olexiy Solohubenko, Russia analyst for the BBC.

An exclusive story from the Wall Street Journal says that cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system. In eerie echoes of the Cold War, government officials are blaming China and Russia, but is nearly impossible to know whether or not this act is government-sponsored because of the difficulty in tracking true identities in cyberspace. The spooks were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. And while the intruders haven't damaged the power grid, officials warned they could. For more on this startling story, we turn to the Wall Street Journal's Intelligence Correspondent Siobhan Gorman.

Read Siobhan Gorman's article, Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies in today's Wall Street Journal.

The G-20 summit is underway in London and world leaders are hoping the day will end with a new global deal for tackling the worldwide recession. It’s a moment that reminds our next guest of the end of the year 1930, when the world was 18 months into the Great Depression. Stocks were down about 60 percent, corporate profits had been cut in half, and unemployment had climbed from 4 percent to about 10 percent. Sounds familiar, right? To help us understand what tools world leaders and central bankers can use to the global economy out of a recession and whether a return to the gold standard can help that is Liaquat Ahamed, the Author of Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World.

President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are meeting for the first time today. Obama plans to open negotiation today to draft a new arms control treaty that could slash American and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals by about a third and possibly lead to even deeper reductions. For more, we talk with Clifford Levy, Moscow bureau chief for the New York Times.

The crisis in the auto industry is not just taking it's toll on American brands. While the Saturn and Hummer maybe a thing of the past here, in Europe, Saab is at risk, and in Russia, the famed Lada car company may be at risk of going under entirely. And they haven't been able to pay their hockey team in three months. In fact, there is an entire city that depends on making the car mdash;it's home town of Togliatti in central Russia. For more, The Takeaway is joined by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow.

Not familiar with Lada? Maybe this commercial will help bring you up to speed.

Yesterday, the Kremlin announced a massive modernization of its military, which sent Cold War shivers through the West. White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said President Medvedev’s statement that NATO expansion is prompting the military upgrade is “not on base” and was merely meant for Russian ears. But you might not know that from what the Russian defense minister said. For more, we turn to the BBC Russian Affairs analyst, Steven Eke, who's in London.

Watch this clip from Russia Today to see Medvedev's statement on expansion.

Last month, President Obama sent a secret hand-delivered letter to Russia's President Dmitri Medvedev. It was an offer: the U.S. would back off from deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe, if Moscow would help deter Iran from developing long-range weapons. Moscow has not responded to the letter, but many people see this as an effort to reset the relationship between the U.S. and Russia. New York Times reporter Peter Baker wrote a front page story on this and he joins us now.

For more, read Peter Baker's article, Obama Offered Deal to Russia in Secret Letter in today's New York Times.

It's the one year anniversary of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's rise to power, but many Russia watchers feel that Vladimir Putin still holds the reins. While most world leaders would envy their approval ratings, since the global financial crisis hit the country, Medvedev's and Putin's ratings have fallen. For a look back at Medvedev's first year and a glimpse of the future, we are joined by the BBC's Olexiy Solohubenko.

Russia last week marked the 20th anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan with avowals from its leaders that they really, truly do not want the American military mission there to suffer the same humiliating fate. But what do the Russians really want in Afghanistan and what does it say about American-Russian relations? To help answer that question, we are joined by the New York Times' Moscow Bureau Chief Clifford J. Levy, who has been following this story closely.

For more, read Clifford J. Levy's article, Poker-Faced, Russia Flaunts Its Afghan Card in the New York Times.

The Eurovision songwriting competition pits songsmiths across the entire European continent against each other in a fierce competition to represent the EU in song. This year, one song by Stephane and 3G, the disco-inspired Georgian group, is raising eyebrows in Russia for their purported subtle dig at the Russian President. For more on Vladimir Putin's dislike for this song (and Abba) we turn to the BBC's Tom Esslemont in Tblisi, Georgia.

Want to judge the song for yourself? Here you go, Dancing Queen:

Russia's economy is reeling from the effect of a sharp fall in the price of oil. The ruble has lost more than a third of its value since August, inflation is about 13 percent a year and the 2009 budget is expected to slip into deficit for the first time in about a decade. The Kremlin is now reportedly worried about social unrest. Has Vladimir Putin's star fallen? For more, we're talking to Steven Eke, Russia analyst for our partner, the BBC.

While most Americans may wonder where in the world is Kyrgyzstan, the U.S. military is very aware of it this week. The United States and NATO have longed use a base in Kyrgyzstan as a vital stopover in the supply route for their operations in Afghanistan. That may be changing though, because Russia offered the country two billion dollars in aid if Kyrgyzstan agreed to close the base. For more, we turn to the BBC's Olexiy Solohubenko.

Russian rock band Mumiy Troll is on the brink of their first national U.S. tour despite the fact that they have been rockin’ in the USSR for almost twenty years. Their lead singer, Ilya Lagutenko, is joining us in studio to talk about how he embarked on a rock and roll lifestyle despite growing up in a small port town that was more or less cut off from all of the East and the West due to Russian security concerns.

In a frightening echo of the killing of 2006's murder of Anna Politkovskaya a very prominent Russian lawyer, Stanislav Markelov, was assassinated in broad daylight in Moscow yesterday. The speculation is that Markelov was targeted for his human rights activities. We turn to James Rodgers, the BBC's Moscow correspondent, for more on this disturbing event.

The head of the Russian utility giant, Gazprom, says gas shipments to Ukraine could resume today meaning Europe could start cranking their heaters again. However, the only way Russia will agree is if the E.U. deploys monitors to observe Ukrainian pipelines. Reportedly, no progress has been made on a new contract between the Ukraine and Russia. Here with all the details is the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse.

In response to a spat with Ukraine, Russia is slowing the flow of its gas to European countries that rely on it to heat their homes. This could be a dark foreshadowing of shortages to come. Carola Hoyos, chief energy correspondent for the Financial Times, joins The Takeaway to explain the current dispute and its long-term implications.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution when Fidel Castro established himself as the Cuban leader and began one of the longest and most controversial relationships in U.S. diplomatic history. Now almost an anachronism of the Cold War, how has the country changed over the last fifty years? How will it look fifty years from now? The BBC's Michael Voss joins John and Adaora from Havana.

A meeting in Moscow today of gas-exporting nations, including Russia, Venezuela and Iran, has some wondering if the group is trying to form the gas equivalent of OPEC. The Takeaway talks to Global Insight's senior Russian analyst, Natalia Leschenko, for more insight.