VZCZCXRO0854
PP RUEHLN RUEHPOD RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHMO #0177/01 0250745
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 250745Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6260
INFO RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 000177 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/ECA 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PGOV PHUM PINR ICRC RS
SUBJECT: ICRC HOPES ITS PRESIDENT'S MOSCOW VISIT 
MEANS IMPROVED RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  In Moscow January 14-16, the 
International Committee of the Red Cross President 
sought to "upgrade" relations between the Geneva- 
based organization and the Russian Federation as 
well as encourage a more systematic, concerted 
Russian approach to solving the cases of the 
country's disappeared.  While Russian ministers were 
generous with their time, and meetings were 
reportedly cordial, no specific pledges to cooperate 
emerged from the trip.  End Summary. 
¶2. (U) ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger visited 
Moscow January 14 to 16, his first foray to Russia 
since 2001.  He met with Russian Foreign Minister 
Sergey Lavrov for 90 minutes January 15 and for a 
full two-and-a-half hours with Minister of the 
Interior Rashid Nurgaliyev the next day.  According 
to Francois Blancy, deputy head of the ICRC's 
delegation in the RF, Kellenberger will return to 
Russia in November to mark the 140th anniversary of 
the St. Petersburg Declaration.  (Note:  The 1868 
Declaration of Saint Petersburg grew out of the 
invention by Russian military authorities of a 
bullet that exploded on contact with its target. The 
then-Russian Government, unwilling to use the bullet 
itself or to allow another country to take advantage 
of it, suggested that the use of the bullet be 
prohibited by international agreement. The 
Declaration thus confirmed the customary rule 
according to which the use of weapons that cause 
unnecessary suffering is prohibited.  End note.) 
¶3. (U) Blancy told Refcoord January 22 that 
Kellenberger, a Swiss former diplomat, wants the 
ICRC to work as closely with Russia as it does with 
the U.S. and European countries in order fully to 
integrate the Russian perspective in ICRC policy and 
planning - an "upgrade" the RF welcomes.  Thus this 
visit was about consultation, Blancy asserted, and 
did not aim at achieving any new agreements on joint 
endeavors. 
Missing:  Any Deliverable 
------------------------- 
¶4. (SBU) Overall, Blancy declared, the ICRC and 
Russia have no areas of disagreement; however, the 
issue of missing persons remains highly sensitive. 
Blancy would only say that Moscow appears to 
understand the ICRC's role in working to get answers 
for frightened and grieving families of the over 
1100 people missing in the North Caucasus.  "It's a 
bit premature to say more than that" at this time, 
Blancy hedged. 
¶5. (SBU) In spite of Kellenberger's lobbying, Russia 
did not agree immediately to adopt the ICRC's Model 
Law on the Missing 
(http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htm lall/mi 
ssing-model-law-010907/$File/Model%20law.miss ing- 
0907_eng%20.pdf ), which aims to coordinate official 
agencies' efforts to find people and incorporates 
measures to prevent disappearances and to support 
affected families.  Nor did the parties resolve 
their long-term disagreement over ICRC monitoring 
visits to North Caucasus detainees (the ICRC stopped 
such visits in 2004 in protest at what it complained 
were excessively restrictive conditions imposed by 
authorities).  Blancy reported that both sides 
reiterated regret that no solution has yet been 
found that would permit resumption of this 
traditional Red Cross activity. 
¶6. (SBU) Blancy pronounced the ICRC satisfied with 
Kellenberger's trip thanks to the GOR's express 
commitment, however abstract, to search actively for 
missing persons; and its welcoming of continued ICRC 
efforts to promote RF armed forces' understanding of 
and adherence to international humanitarian law 
(IHL). His interlocutors informed Kellenberger that 
the Ministry of Interior has already incorporated 
the basics of IHL in its troops' curriculum and 
preferred future ICRC trainings instead to address 
advanced and specialized issues.  ICRC training at 
Interior, which had halted last year, will resume 
later in 2008, as soon as the Red Cross can come up 
with new modules, Blancy affirmed. 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) The ICRC has chosen a path of constructive 
engagement with Moscow.  Kellenberger evidently 
hopes that his "carrot" approach -- more prestige 
attached to the relationship in return for 
ministers' time - will have a salutary effect.  As 
 
MOSCOW 00000177  002 OF 002 
 
 
the Red Cross has reduced its North Caucasus 
humanitarian aid budget to $11 million this year 
(from about $20 million in 2007), the ICRC, if it 
wishes to matter in the lives of ordinary Russian 
citizens, must hope the ministers will actually 
listen - and act. 
 
Blancy Bio 
---------- 
 
¶8. (U) Biographic note:  Francois Blancy, a 
Frenchman, took up the Deputy Head of ICRC Russian 
Delegation post in December 2007.  He has been with 
Red Cross since 1994, specializing in protection and 
tracing and serving in the North Caucasus from 1998- 
¶2000.  He is married to a Russian citizen of Balkar 
(Caucasian) ethnicity and has three sons, ages 20, 
8, and 5. 
 
BURNS