Hillary Clinton departed
Moscow yesterday afternoon, after a two-day visit in which she and
Obama adviser Michael McFaul met with officials and
private citizens — and they leave behind an array of questions about
the “reset” in the U.S.-Russia relations.
Their approach to democracy and human rights left something to be desired. McFaul inadvertently made it seem as if U.S. officials werebacking off their advocacy of these issues in Russia,and his remarks were picked up (and misinterpreted) by a Russiannewspaper Kommersant. Afterward, as Radio Free Europe /
Radio Liberty
reported,
a Moscow radio station called Ekho Moskvy asked listeners during a
call-in program to respond to the question of whether the United
States was “right to drop criticism of Russian democracy and human
rights.” More than 70 percent of the callers said that they
believed it was wrong. Clearly, many Russians were concerned about the
possibility. In other ways, too, the U.S. officials’ visit to Russia
was troubling for many Russians, since, as human-right advocates have
pointed out, Clinton appeared at a Moscow ceremony for the unveiling of a statue of
Walt Whitman alongside a local official, Mayor YuryLuzhkov, who has made inflammatory statements about gays (he
opposed gay march prides in Moscow, saying they “can be described as
no other way than as satanic”).
On Wednesday, Clinton gave a speech in the Russian city ofKazan and tried to reinforce the U.S. commitment to democracy andhuman rights, adding, “That’s why attacks on journalists and humanrights defenders here in Russia is such a great concern: because it isa threat to progress,” according to The Moscow Times. Clinton and McFaul were focused on the issue of Iran while they were
in Russia this week, attempting to navigate diplomatic terrain during
the reset of relations, but the issue of human rights and democracy
presented unexpected, and perhaps unnecessary, problems.
–TaraMcKelvey
