We won't scold

Negotiations between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took place in Moscow. Many important issues were discussed - continuation of consultations on analyzing the risks of missile proliferation, development of a new treaty on the limitation of strategic offensive arms, missile defense, nuclear security, problems of Iran and the DPRK. Colleagues noted that their positions on a number of issues are consonant, but some things still need to be studied in detail (in particular, Russia must understand the essence of the new US missile defense concept before discussing the possibility of cooperation). The United States has once again made it clear that it does not recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia expressed bewilderment that NATO has not responded to a number of cooperation initiatives in Afghanistan. Finally, the Russian-American Presidential Commission and its working groups were discussed.

There will be sixteen working groups. Among them is a working group on civil society issues, which is headed on the American side by the Presidential Adviser for Russia and Eurasia, Michael McFaul, and on the Russian side by the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, a great friend of civil society, Vladislav Surkov. On October 13, it became known that on the Russian side the commission would include Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin and the head of the Presidential Council for Promoting the Development of Civil Society Institutions Ella Pamfilova. Moreover, Lukin, in his own words, cited by Interfax, learned about this from McFaul. McFaul's idea, as outlined by Kommersant, is for the working group to consist of officials. This approach, of course, suited Surkov. But it hardly satisfied Russian human rights activists who met with Hillary Clinton on October 13. According to the head of the Memorial Human Rights Center Oleg Orlov, as cited by Interfax, “it would be advisable to create four bilateral commissions - two from the state and two from the civil society of both countries.”

In general, as part of the “reset,” the United States is going to abandon the practice of publicly criticizing Russia on the issue of human rights, McFaul told Kommersant. The United States will no longer teach Russia democracy, but intends to concentrate on practical work with NGOs. The whole question now is how effectively this work will be carried out, especially if, according to McFaul's plan, everything will be limited to contacts at the level of officials. At a meeting with human rights activists, Clinton seemed to make it clear that the situation with human rights in Russia is not indifferent to her and contact with civil society is important to her, and even that the topic of human rights remains a priority for the American administration. Let's see. If before, when the United States allowed itself to criticize Russia for the infringement of rights and freedoms, no special changes occurred on this front, then what can we expect now, when there will be no criticism?