| Moscow, 10 March: Co-chairman of the Russia without Lawlessness
and Corruption party Vladimir Ryzhkov believes that US Vice-President
Joseph Biden's meeting in Moscow with representatives of opposition
parties was meaningful and constructive.
"Mr Biden was interested in the issue of censorship in
the Russian media, and also of registration of opposition
parties in elections," Ryzhkov told Interfax after the
meeting.
Ryzhkov said that Boris Nemtsov and he had informed the US
vice-president about the party that they were setting up,
"which has not yet undergone the registration procedure,
but, judging by opinion polls, was already in fifth place,
behind the four parties represented in the State Duma".
Speaking at the meeting, Ryzhkov, Nemtsov, and also (United
Civil Front leader) Garri Kasparov raised the issue of the
need for sanctions against those Russian officials who grossly
violated human rights. "I also spoke about the officials
from the so-called Magnitskiy case and Khodorkovskiy and Lebedev
list," Ryzhkov said (REFERENCE to the list of officials
linked to the prosecution of the lawyer Sergey Magnitskiy,
who died in pre-trial custody in November 2009, and the list
of those involved in the prosecution and conviction of Yukos
oil company founder Mikhail Khodorkovskiy and his business
partner Platon Lebedev).
Asked why the other two co-chairmen of the party For Russia
without Lawlessness and Corruption, (former Prime Minister)
Mikhail Kasyanov and (economist) Vladimir Milov, did not attend
the meeting with the US vice-president, Ryzhkov said: "Personal
invitations to the meeting were sent out by the US side".
As reported earlier, in addition to Ryzhkov, Nemtsov and Kasparov,
the meeting with the US vice-president was attended by (former
Yabloko party leader) Grigoriy Yavlinskiy, (Right Cause party
co-chairman) Leonid Gozman, (Communist MP) Nina Ostanina and
(A Just Russia MP and economist) Oksana Dmitriyeva.
For his part, co-chairman of the opposition Solidarity movement
Boris Nemtsov told Interfax that the meeting with the US vice-president
had been "very lively and meaningful, and made one feel
optimistic". "We talked for an hour and a half in
all. As for me, I said that the abolition of discriminatory
measures in (as received) Russia, including the Jackson-Vanik
amendment (denying Russia the most favoured status in trade
with USA), was in the interests of both sides. If sanctions
are to be imposed at all, they should be against our wretched
officials," Nemtsov said.
Furthermore, he said, he "suggested that long-term monitoring
of our elections should be carried out". "Our elections
should be monitored not only on election day, but when the
election campaign only just begins. Because fraud and violations
here begin when the opposition is denied registration, and
even if some opposition figures are registered, they are simply
not allowed to campaign, and their rights are infringed in
other ways too," Nemtsov said. (Nemtsov suggested to
Biden that the monitoring of Russian elections should start
this spring, and cover four aspects: the registration of political
parties, TV censorship, the removal of candidates, and vote-counting,
Gazprom-owned, editorially independent Russian news agency
Ekho Moskvy quoted Nemtsov himself telling Ekho Moskvy radio
after the meeting.)
He also said that a list of those whom the opposition regards
as political prisoners in Russia had been handed to Biden.
Grigoriy Yavlinskiy discussed with Biden the prospects of
setting up joint Russian-NATO missile defence, and the internal
political situation in the Russian Federation, the Yabloko
press service has told Interfax.
"Yavlinskiy regards joint missile defence as the most
substantial and promising aspect of Russian-US security cooperation,
which is importance not only for the two countries but for
the whole world," Yabloko press secretary Igor Yakovlev
said.
Touching upon the internal political situation in Russia,
the former party leader said that its main difficulties, including
the lack of vital democratic procedures, had long been known.
In this context, he believes that it is important to realize
that the issue that has to be tackled is the replacement of
the system created back in the 1990s, and this is a much more
complex and in-depth process than the change of personalities
in power.
Yavlinskiy stressed that "tackling this problem is the
task for the Russian public, who should rely, above all, on
their own resources in this long and complicated work".
"Yavlinskiy listed equality in the eyes of the law, an
independent judiciary, and inviolability of property as the
main objectives of Russia's civil society as a whole and of
the Yabloko party as its part," Yakovlev said.
For his part, co-chairman of the Right Cause party Leonid
Gozman has told Interfax that Vice-President Biden was "very
concerned about the situation with democracy, elections, censorship,
and the registration of parties and public associations in
our country". "I fully share these concerns because
I am convinced that a democratic partner is much more reliable
for the USA that an authoritarian one," Gozman said.
He said that at the meeting he "spoke not about the problems
specific to the Right Cause party but about the situation
in the country as a whole, characterizing it as fairly dangerous
in terms of social and political stability". "I
said that the situation in our country now is much less stable
than it might appear at first glance, if one looks superficially,
and that the crisis of confidence in state institutions and
the personifications of these institutions is only mounting,"
Gozman stressed.
See also:
Russia's
ABM Initiatives
Russia-US
Relations
Russia
and NATO
Grigory
Yavlinsky discussed with US Vice President Joseph Biden the
prospects of a joint Russia-NATO ABM system and political
situation in Russia. Press Release. March 10, 2011
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