Moscow - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday met civil society leaders in Moscow, but avoided controversy by not meeting with human rights organisations critical of President Vladimir Putin's rule.
Rice, who on the eve of her visit to Moscow had made highly critical remarks about the state of democracy in Russia, told five civil society leaders that Washington had no intention of interfering in Russian politics.
"From what I see, the name of the game is damage limitation. Her message was the United States is here to assist and the United States is not in the business of a new Cold War with Russia," said one of the five, Andrei Kortunov from US-funded development group the New Eurasia Foundation.
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The 90-minute session was also notable for the absence of leading Russian human rights activists, including those who have been given the chance to meet US leaders on previous visits. Later, Rice was to discuss rising US-Russian tensions with Putin.
"There was a general understanding that the United States should fine-tune its public statements and be careful in the language they use," Kortunov told AFP.
Irina Yasina, a former colleague of jailed Yukos oil company boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky, said the five had warned Rice that ignoring Russia's views on the future of Kosovo would fuel "anti-American hysteria" in Russia, Interfax news agency reported.
Meanwhile human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina told AFP that Rice's decision not to meet human rights activists reflected US indifference to human rights in Russia and particularly to abuses committed in war-torn Chechnya.
"Human rights activists have fallen out of the sphere of interest of Condoleezza Rice," said Gannushkina, head of the human rights centre of the rights organisation Memorial.
"We don't expect great support from the United States. We'd like to have support from countries that consider themselves democratic and clear statements on what's happening in Russia, but how could we expect that from Bush?" she demanded, pointing to abuses by the United States in Iraq.
- Sapa-AFP
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