Founded in 1982, the American Foreign Policy Council's Russia Program was one of the first private initiatives in Washington to establish ongoing connections between American officials and the upper echelons of the political leadership in the Soviet Union and, subsequently, the Russian Federation. On the premise that Russia is an indispensable part of U.S. national security planning, the Russia Program engages in a wide range of activities relating to the U.S.-Russia relationship, including: sponsoring numerous fact-finding missions to Russia and other former Soviet Republics; hosting congressional luncheons and providing executive branch briefings on Russian affairs and foreign policy; hosting the American visits of high-ranking Russian officials, and; sponsoring the Congressional testimony of key witnesses on a variety of Russian foreign and security policy issues. In addition, the Program publishes the American Foreign Policy Council's flagship publication, the Russia Reform Monitor, which tracks the transition to democracy in the Russian Federation and U.S. policy toward the former USSR.