Rice meets rights activists during tense Moscow visit

[Lucas Corso]

Rice meets rights activists during tense Moscow visit


14:00 | 13/ 10/ 2007
MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Russian human rights activists in Moscow on Saturday, a day after unsuccessful defense talks with the country's leaders.
The United States has repeatedly voiced concerns over the alleged erosion of democracy and human rights in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin, in turn, has warned against outside interference, and condemns the use of NGOs by foreign states to influence domestic policy.
Rice's meeting in the U.S. Embassy, attended by several heads of NGOs, appeared likely to further strain tensions with Moscow. However, according to one of the officials present at the talks, she avoided making judgments on the rights situation in Russia.
Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau, told RIA Novosti: "She did not give an assessment. Those present gave their evaluation of the situation as a whole, and discussed particular areas of human rights violations."
Brod said the meeting was attended by eight rights leaders including Russia's human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, formerly Russian ambassador to the United States, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and Svetlana Gannushkina, who heads an assistance group for refugees.
At the talks, Rice pledged Washington's support to rights officials in building institutions that support "the rights of individuals to liberty and freedom, the right to worship as you please, the right to assembly, and the right to not have to deal with the arbitrary power of the state."
The state secretary is expected to hold meetings with Russian media and business representatives later in the day.
On Friday Rice and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with President Putin, and held "two-plus-two" negotiations with their Russian counterparts aimed at overcoming an on-running dispute over U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Central Europe, and a deadlock on a Soviet-era arms control treaty.
Rice said the sides failed to overcome their differences, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the U.S. ministers had offered proposals to end the missile shield dispute, but that these measures were inadequate.
Robert Gates is expected to meet with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov later on Saturday, and visit the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Military Academy.



Source: RIA Novosti - Russia - Rice meets rights activists during tense Moscow visit

They're trying to setup another colourful revolution but i think Pution knows how to managed this annoying people...

[Menydh]

Going on an official visit to a foreign country and meeting with opposition rights activists there is a coarse way to feed the ignition of a conflict. Especially coming from the representatives of a country like the US of America, which is the number one rights violator throughout the world, and that has rights activists calling for the trial of its current president for war crimes.

[Marulus]

The were doing this kind of arrogant interference wherever they were trying to overthrow governments: in Croatia (1999), Serbia (2000), Georgia (2004), Ukraine (2004), Belarus (unsuccessful as yet)....

Truly a disgusting country.

[Errigal]

This photo is from Condoleezza Rice's meeting with Putin earlier in her trip. I get the impression he came out ahead.

[Aptrgangr]

Rice pledges support to Russian activists

By Arshad Mohammed and Gleb Bryanski
Sat Oct 13, 9:47 AM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Russian human rights activists on Saturday she wanted to help them build institutions to protect people from the 'arbitrary power of the state'.

"I am quite confident that your goal is to build institutions that are indigenous to Russia -- that are Russian institutions -- but that are also respectful of what we all know to be universal values," said Rice.
She said these were: "The rights of individuals to liberty and freedom, the right to worship as you please, and the right to assembly, the right to not have to deal with the arbitrary power of the state."
"How is it going and what can we do to help Russia to build strong institutions that have these universal values?"

The United States and other Western governments are concerned about democracy, human rights and civil society in Russia under President Vladimir Putin.
He has centralized power and mounted a huge security operation in Chechnya. Television, main source of news for most Russians, has been brought under tight Kremlin control with Putin's opponents rarely given access to the airwaves.
Opinion polls though show most Russians back Putin's tough style of rule.

ABU-GHRAIB JAIL
Tatyana Lokshina, head of the Demos civil rights group, said she and her colleagues had discussed with Rice rights abuses in Chechnya, and fears the Russian political system discriminates against the opposition.
But Lokshina said the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay and allegations of abuse at the U.S.-run Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq had dented Washington's authority on human rights.

"When the United States criticizes, the Russian authorities say: 'Look what is happening on your patch'," she said.
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said she told Rice the West should be more vocal. "An authoritarian regime is intentionally being built (in Russia)," she said.

"I told Rice that human rights activists would like Western leaders visiting Russia ... to raise human rights issues not only in private conversations but also publicly."
Rice and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday met Putin and their Russian counterparts for so-called "2+2" talks that focused on a U.S. plan for a missile defense shield in Europe, which Moscow opposes.
Rice said she had not raised human rights in her talks with Putin or in the "2+2" discussions, saying these had concentrated on missile defense and other strategic issues.

However, she told reporters on Saturday she had discussed human rights and Russia's political evolution with the Russian foreign minister, prime minister and other senior officials at subsequent meetings.

Rice said there was too much concentration of power in the Kremlin and spoke of the need for independent institutions to counter-balance the Russian presidency.
"There are questions about the independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma (lower house of parliament)."

Rice pledges support to Russian activists - Yahoo! News

[Errigal]

Perhaps President Putin should meet with Ron Paul or Cindy Sheehan and then publicly criticize the American political system.

[Lucas Corso]

Originally Posted by Errigal

Perhaps President Putin should meet with Ron Paul or Cindy Sheehan and then publicly criticize the American political system.

Don't forget Sean Penn, Michael Moore and Tim Robbins, but still i don't know which would be the right colour for a colourful revolution in U$A