Secretary of State and Special Aide met with Russian human rights advocates in Moscow

Kommersant.

Recently Russian human rights advocates had a meeting with Under Secretary of State William Burns and Special Aide to the US President for Russia Michael McFall. The human rights advocates complained of the dispersals of peaceful meetings by Moscow authorities and specified that one of their comrades-in-arms, head of the ‘For Human Rights’ movement Lev Ponomarev who was also invited to attend the meeting, was in custody. The human rights advocates insisted that the American officials highlighted the problem to be discussed in public, but they doubt their request was treated with due attention.

Head of Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva, Memorial Alliance Chairman Oleg Orlov, head of the Moscow Department of the Russian Federation of Car Owners Sergey Kanayev, head of the Democracy and Human Rights Development Center Yury Dzhibladze, etc., attended the meeting. Head of the ‘For Human Rights’ movement Lev Ponomarev could not come, as he was in custody for 4 days for his participation in the ‘Day of Anger’ protest on August 12th, 2010. His seat at the round table was left demonstratively vacant.

The attendees focused on discussing violations of human rights in Russia, primarily on the facts of dispersing the meetings that called for the freedom of assembly. Later Memorial head Oleg Orlov commented: “We did not have to say much; our hosts were well-informed about those events. Certainly, we could not keep silent about the egregious example with Lev Ponomarev”. Lyudmila Alekseyeva added: “US representatives declared they were shocked with those meeting dispersals, and they noted they would discuss the issue with their Russian counterparts”. The attendees also focused on the case of Hermitage Capital Foundation Layer Sergey Magnitsky who died in the preliminary detention cell.

Orlov says: “All our speeches boiled down to the fact that Americans must not only discuss those issues in the lobby with Russian authorities, but highlight their public attitude towards the events and initiate a dialogue”.

Yesterday members of the American delegation met with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. For today a meeting with a workgroup of Russian and American public activists is scheduled. The Russian delegation will be headed by First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov; the US delegation will be headed by Mr. McFall. Sergey Kanayev noted: “During the meeting Americans only helped themselves and listened to our speeches; but I hope they will tell their authorities what we discussed here in Moscow. Before the meeting I told about our ‘blue bucket’ actions against the excessive quantity of cars with special signals in the streets of Moscow, and US representatives said they liked the clear and simple manner in which we are seeking to achieve our goal”.

Orlov concluded: “Both Mr. Burns and Mr. McFall promised that serious attention will be paid to the human rights issue in the Russian-America dialogue. Our aim is to get other representatives of both US and Russian civil societies join that dialogue. No one would import human rights to Russia, but the US experience in such issues as the reform of the Internal Affaires Ministry, penitentiary and judicial systems’ reform could be useful”.

It is worth noting that last October during her visit to Moscow for ‘reloading’ the US-Russian relations US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised to Russian authorities to temper Washington’s criticism of the Kremlin for human rights violation by stating that was ‘Russia’s internal affaires’. After that experts are confident that public criticism will not resume. Director for Russian and Asian Programs of the Washington-based Global Security Institute Nikolai Zlobin told our correspondent: “On the one hand, that meeting is a kind of a ritual. US authorities meet with human rights advocates in all the countries in which those problems exist. On the other hand, the US is too focused on Iran and North Korea… Even during Leonid Brezhnev’s rule the authorities paid more attention to Russia’s civil society”. займ онлайн срочный займ https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php unshaven girl