Around Russia

"Evolution"

July 7, 2009 Dmitry Sidorov

The documents signed by Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow carry a sensation, which should focus on human rights and non -governmental organizations working in Russia.
What are you talking about, you will understand, breaking through a few paragraphs.

Among the large number of documents pre -prepared for signing, including the transit of American cargo through Russia to Afghanistan, START, updated cooperation in combating drug trafficking and terrorism (we can’t find out anything about the details of the last two years), the presidents decided to create a bilateral commission under their patronage.

Like the one that existed under the presidents of Yeltsin and Clinton and was called Gore-Chernomyrdin. By the way, Albert Mountains still does not apply very much about the details of her work, apparently engaged in global warming, and Chernomyrdin, perhaps, is ready to place the accusations of corruption, but sadness in Kyiv does not allow him to state his point of view.

So, in the new commission under the auspices of Obama and Medvedev and the management of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 13 working groups were included. They should engage in various aspects of relations between Moscow and Washington, including the same fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, cultural exchanges, etc. It is worth talking about two or three working groups in the future, seriously preparing for this conversation.

But one “group” made me laugh at first, and then shudder with horror. She will engage in civil society. From the American side it will be headed by Michael McFol, the assistant to the president and the director for Russia in the National Security Council. With the Russian ... Vladislav Surkov, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration. I think that the best candidate than this person who has almost destroyed all the “living” in the country cannot be found.

The talents of Mr. Surkov, a well -known “supporter” of the existence of opposition thoughts, movements and presses in Russia, among other things, one of the creators of the term “sovereign democracy”, who stood at the origins of the “ours” movement, would quite allow him to make the head of the working group to coordinate the cooperation of the penitentiary systems of the Russian Federation and the United States. In short, all those or all those who are in cells and are deprived of the right to vote and freedom of movement due to dissent. I think that we could evaluate the activities of Surkov in this direction by observing the appearance of political prisoners in the United States, as well as the ban and restriction of the activities of non -governmental organizations.

However, if we consider it a too direct and rude analogy, I could propose creating a working group to exchange experience with regions where Mr. Surkov would have responsible for this direction from the Russian side. I think that his trip to California would be an interesting experience in order to bring Arnold Schwarzenegger into the economic and political feelings of the state governor.

Seriously speaking, the list of working groups and their leaders was approved by both parties, which automatically means the legitimization of Washington of the “activity” of Vladislav Surkov to create a “sovereign civil society” in Russia. It is impossible to make more "gift" to human rights. Whether this happened as a result of some exchange, the possibility of which was denied by Michael McFol, or from the desire to engage in "enlightenment" of Vladislav Surkov in terms of civil society.

For me, such a step of the Obama administration shows the triumph of “realism” with the simultaneous refusal to support democratic transformations and civil society in other countries. In exchange for ... in general, it is not very clear what. At the same time, the careful mention of US President Mikhail Khodorkovsky in an interview with Novaya Gazeta, apparently, should only be considered a tribute to the home audience, and not a serious attempt to somehow influence the fate of the President of the Yukos.

In Vladimir Lenin, Felix Dzerzhinsky was responsible for working with civil society, Adolf Hitler with propaganda and civil society was led by Paul Joseph Goebbels, Lavrenty Beria was included in Stalin, if we compare these characters with the monkey transformation table into a person, it will become clear how much we changed. We proudly call this evolution, implying how far we go forward ...

It remains only to hope that the created commission under the patronage of the two presidents will be as “productive” as the organization of Gore-Chernomyrdin.