VZCZCXRO5888
RR RUEHDBU RUEHLN RUEHPOD RUEHSK RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHMO #1797/01 1941427
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 131427Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4231

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 001797 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM RS
SUBJECT: "DA, WE CAN": OPTIMISM SWEEPS CIVIL SOCIETY SUMMIT 
 
REF: MOSCOW 1620 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Civil Society Summit of July 6-7 
brought together approximately 100 NGO representatives from 
both the U.S. and Russia.  Although participants were pleased 
with the detailed results of the Summit's various Working 
Groups, they saved their most effusive praise for President 
Obama, noting his own past as a community organizer and 
calling him "one of us."  Two factors remained to dampen the 
excitement: the absence of Medvedev at the Summit, and the 
decision to appoint conservative Kremlin Chief of Staff 
Vyacheslav Surkov to head up the Russian side of the newly 
created bilateral commission on Civil Society.  Nonetheless, 
the existence of this commission indicates that this Summit 
will likely contribute to bilateral cooperation in this area, 
both at the government and at the NGO level.  End Summary. 
 
Summit goals: Change the tone, get something done 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Civil Society Summit of July 6-7, brought 
together in Moscow approximately 100 NGO representatives from 
both the U.S. and Russia, working in areas such as the 
environment, community development, education, health, 
anti-corruption, and human rights.  Groups identified areas 
for civil society collaboration and joint efforts to address 
common challenges.  Organized by the New Eurasia Fund (NEF) 
in Russia and the Center for Strategic and International 
Studies in the U.S., the Summit was designed to parallel the 
bilateral summit between Presidents Obama and Medvedev; as 
Human Rights Watch Russia director Allison Gill told us July 
9, "the two civil societies have grown apart as the two 
governments have," making this Civil Society Summit, as NEF 
chief Andrey Kortunov said at the event, "an important first 
step." 
 
¶3. (SBU) In general participants -- especially those from 
less populous regions -- who address technical aspects of 
environmental protection, housing, community economic 
development, youth engagement, and encouragement of more 
healthy living, all appreciated the opportunity to meet their 
counterparts, with some Americans interacting with Russian 
civic leaders for the first time.  They all committed 
themselves personally and professionally to maintaining 
contacts and sharing information and state-of-the-art models 
in their sectors. 
 
¶4. (SBU) At the conference, a number of human rights 
representatives noted that challenges in Russia -- such as 
security, political prisoners, and working conditions for 
NGOs -- remain more severe for Russian NGOs than for their 
American counterparts.  At the same time, they said that it 
will be important to shift the paradigm of U.S. civil society 
"assistance," replacing it with mutual cooperation on issues 
that both countries face, with the U.S. side scrupulously 
avoiding a lecturing or paternalistic tone.  To achieve this 
careful balance, the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) within 
the larger Civil Society Summit recommended including both 
Russian and American government officials and civil society 
representatives in the dialogue, as well as addressing 
priority topics for both countries.  (Note: The bilateral 
commission on civil society, with NSC Senior Russia Director 
Mike McFaul representing the U.S. and Kremlin Chief of Staff 
Vyacheslav Surkov the Russian side, is likely to begin work 
in the fall.  End Note.)  The HRWG's specific recommendations 
noted problems with human rights practices in both countries, 
such as the need for the U.S. to close Guantanamo, and for 
Russia to "improve the climate for human rights NGOs and 
independent reporters in Russia." 
 
Bravo to the Americans! 
----------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Although most Russian human rights defenders are 
conditioned to temper any occasional euphoria, the 
combination of the Civil Society Summit's concrete 
recommendations and President Obama's star power left Russian 
human rights activists at the who participated feeling upbeat 
and energized.  Veteran activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva, head of 
the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), sang President Obama's 
praises to us July 9, and exclaimed, "Bravo to the 
Americans!" for electing him.  She also expressed the belief 
that the Civil Society Summit in general, and particularly 
the individual working groups, "went beyond pretty words" in 
their discussions and recommendations to the two Presidents. 
Svetlana Gannushkina of Civic Assistance, who also serves on 
Medvedev's Human Rights Council, similarly told us that she 
had found the Civil Society Summit's work useful, and had 
been "dazzled" by Obama's speech, which she called "a 
surprising feeling."  Noting that Obama himself had once 
worked as a community organizer, she said that the consensus 
 
MOSCOW 00001797  002 OF 003 
 
 
among those present was that he is "one of us," a member of 
the civil society brotherhood. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Some participants viewed the event in a more sober 
light.  Human Rights Watch's Gill was circumspect, calling 
the HRWG's accomplishments "a good start," but noting that a 
Civil Society G-8 had taken place alongside a G-8 meeting 
three years ago, and that nothing had resulted from it.  Oleg 
Orlov of Memorial, speaking to us July 9, also cautioned 
against reading too much into the event, but said that it was 
"interesting" to hear Obama's perspective, and "useful" to 
get human rights defenders together to talk, something he 
noted happens too rarely. 
 
¶7. (SBU) In the media, although some writers had feared that 
Obama would eschew direct criticism of the GOR's human rights 
record, most commentators agreed that he had managed to raise 
the important issues, while remaining respectful. 
Transparency International Russia head Yelena Panfilova, who 
delivered a speech on anti-corruption efforts to Obama at the 
Civil Society Summit, was pleased with Obama's efforts to 
remove any perceived paternalism from U.S. discussion of 
Russia's record.  Lev Ponomarev of For Human Rights would 
have liked to have heard more from Obama about the 
Khodorkovskiy case, although he noted with satisfaction that 
the HRWG explicitly acknowledged "the existence of 
politically motivated justice" in Russia.  Tatyana Stanovaya 
of the Center for Political Technologies wrote on politcom.ru 
that the process of reset will take some time, but that it is 
clear that it will apply to civil society and that it will 
continue.  She said that the U.S. has made it clear that 
democracy and human rights will remain part of the dialogue, 
and that there are enough points of mutual concern that 
Russia will be able to bring to the table to enable the 
"political will" for dialogue on their end. 
 
Two disappointments 
------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Both in the media and among our contacts, nearly all 
observers pointed to the absence of Medvedev at the Summit as 
a discouraging sign.  Gannushkina called his absence 
"ominous," especially when combined with the Kremlin's 
decision to appoint conservative Kremlin Chief of Staff 
Vyacheslav Surkov to head up the Russian side of the newly 
created bilateral commission on Civil Society.  Orlov 
speculated that Medvedev avoided the Civil Society Summit in 
order to signal to conservative elites that there are limits 
to how far he will go in reforming society and defying their 
wishes.  (Note: In a press conference following the Civil 
Society Summit, Ella Pamfilova, who heads the Presidential 
Council on Civil Society and Human Rights, claimed that 
Medvedev had not received the invitation in time to act on 
it.  End Note.) 
 
¶9. (SBU) As for Surkov, on July 8, immediately after the 
Civil Society Summit, a group of 22 human rights activists 
meeting at the Sakharov Center signed an open letter to 
Medvedev and Obama, published on the MHG website, urging 
Medvedev to re-examine his decision to appoint Surkov. 
Ponomarev told the mainstream liberal business daily 
Vedomosti on July 9 that he had little doubt that Surkov 
would marginalize the most influential activists, and that 
the commission would remain under Kremlin control "like the 
Public Chamber."  Medvedev had already disappointed rights 
activists in May by appointing Surkov to head the working 
group formed to re-work a deeply unpopular 2006 law which 
placed a number of burdensome registration restrictions on 
NGOs (reftel).  The group produced modest, though concrete, 
results, with a law passing the State Duma in June 
meaningfully easing registration for about one-third of 
Russian NGOs, and providing no improvement in the law for 
foreign-funded NGOs. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Both the U.S. and the GOR must now accomplish a 
balancing act in promoting civil society.  For the U.S., the 
challenge will be how to address the clear asymmetry between 
the two countries in human rights problems, while still 
changing the perception of paternalism into one of mutual 
respect and cooperation.  For the GOR, and Medvedev in 
particular, it will be how to show that he is serious about 
reforming systemic political, legal, and social degradation 
in Russia, while at the same time avoiding accusations from 
conservatives that he is selling out to the West and 
returning the country to the dreaded 1990s.  Human rights 
defenders and other commentators appear confident in Obama's 
ability to attain this balance, but are less sure about 
Medvedev.  His choice of Surkov to head the bilateral 
 
MOSCOW 00001797  003 OF 003 
 
 
commission is a clear attempt by the Kremlin to have it both 
ways, as the commission represents a concrete piece of 
potential progress, while Surkov has already established his 
conservative bona fides as the author of "sovereign 
democracy" and the main obstacle to greater progress on 
amending the NGO law. 
BEYRLE