U.S. Vice president meets Putin, Russian rights campaigners
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow aimed at building on the "reset" in ties between the two nations. Although the visit focuses largely on trade, Biden took time to talk with Russian human rights campaigners.
Biden's visit to Russia is largely devoted to bolstering economic ties between the two nations and building on the "reset" in relations launched two years ago.
Biden on March 9 assured President Dmitry Medvedev of Washington's support for Russia's long-standing bid to join the World Trade Organization.
He also met with business leaders at a high-tech research hub that authorities are building outside Moscow and presided over the signing of a deal for Russia's flagship airline Aeroflot to buy jets from U.S. plane-maker Boeing.
Trade Issues Predominate
Trade issues topped the agenda today during Biden's talks with Putin.
Biden said the previous U.S. administration had done little to deepen economic ties with Russia, which he described as a "great country" with a vast intellectual capital. The time has come, he told Putin, to rectify this shortcoming.
Russian-U.S. trade amounted to $23.5 billion last year, just 3.8 percent of Russia's total external trade.
Putin used the occasion to propose scrapping visas between the two countries, a step he said would shatter Cold-War stereotypes.
"If Russia and the United States agreed on visa-free travel before Russia and the European Union do so, that would be a historic step in the development of Russian-American relations,” Putin said. “It would break down the old stereotypes between Russia and the United States."
Despite the visit's focus on trade, Biden took time to meet some of Russia's leading human rights campaigners ahead of talks with Putin.
Memorial On The Agenda
Svetlana Gannushkina, who co-heads the country's largest rights group, Memorial, said Biden had reiterated Washington's support for a strong civil society in Russia.
"He said how important it was for any government to work with civil society and how civil society should have some control over authorities," she said.
Biden told Russia's beleaguered activists that their country's accession to the WTO was conditional on its efforts to improve its human rights record.
He said the U.S. Congress would not repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment, a set of U.S. Cold-War restrictions on trade with Russia, if the government failed to ensure the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections are free and fair.
Russian rights campaigners, in turn, voiced concern that many of the measures adopted by the Russian and U.S. governments in the name of the war on terror have violated human rights, including abductions, torture, and secret prisons. They also criticized U.S. President Barack Obama for failing to honor his pledge to swiftly shut down the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison.
Veteran rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva, who attended the meeting, said activists understood that the West's dependence on Russian oil and gas prevented foreign officials like Biden from firmly denouncing human rights abuses in their country.
But Biden's visit was nonetheless welcomed as a signal that human rights in Russia have not slipped off Washington's agenda.
Biden was scheduled to meet opposition leaders before capping the visit with a speech at Moscow State University, where he is expected to lay out Obama's vision for U.S.-Russian relations.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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