Unkind followers

The Group "Civil Society" of the Russian-American Presidential Commission will be headed by diplomats Konstantin Dolgov and Thomas Melia, Kommersant reports . Earlier, the co -chairs of the group were Michael Makfol, appointed by the ambassador to Russia, and the former deputy head of the presidential administration Vladislav Surkov, who went to work in the government. Melia holds the position of deputy assistant to the US Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and debts are authorized by the Foreign Ministry on human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

As the publication recalls, in mid -December, Thomas Melia performed in the Senate, where he called the State Duma elections "slapped", expressed concern about xenophobia in Russia and the situation in the North Caucasus. Melia supports the introduction of sanctions against violators of human rights, including the defendants in the Magnitsky List.

D debv, in turn, at the end of the year submitted a report on human rights violations in the United States. In particular, the report indicated that in America there are problems with freedom of speech, as well as “old systemic problems are exacerbated, including racial discrimination, xenophobia, overflow of prisons, unreasonable use of the death penalty, including innocent, minors and mentally ill, the imperfection of the electoral system, corruption.”

McFol positively appreciated the cooperation with Surkov. “I had some false ideas about him. There are many rumors about his activities, he is a well -known person for those who monitor Russian political life. It was useful for me to get acquainted with him and be able to regularly communicate than just read about him in our and your press,” said the Macophol in an interview with “Kommersant”. “We learned something from each other. And this is good. And this is good. stereotypes and mythological ideas about each other. "

The Surkov-Makfol group was created in 2009 for "interaction on civil society issues." The work of the group was not public, the meetings were not documented, nothing was reported about their results. “Surkov met with McFol and other government officials, they discussed something, and then in a very restrained form the other members of the commission told what they agreed there,” explained Elena Panfilova, head of the Russian representative office of Transparency International.

From the Russian side, the group of Macfol-Surkov initially included only public figures loyal to the current government, for example, the current member of the Public Chamber Olga Kostina or political strategist Gleb Pavlovsky. In 2010 alone, under the pressure of human rights defenders, the Committee on Civil Laws, Andrei Babushkin, and the head of the Committee "For Civil Assistance", Svetlana Gannushkin, were included in the commission.