Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09MOSCOW547
2009-03-05 15:46:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Moscow
Cable title:  

PAMFILOVA EXPECTS GREATER RESONANCE WITH MEDVEDEV ON CIVIL SOCIETY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Tags:  PREL KDEM PHUM PINR SOCI RS PGOV 
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O 051546Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2258
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 000547 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2019
TAGS: PGOVREL PREL KDEM PHUM PINR SOCI RS
SUBJECT: PAMFILOVA EXPECTS GREATER RESONANCE WITH MEDVEDEV
ON CIVIL SOCIETY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

REF: MOSCOW 370

Classified By: Ambassador John Beyrle; reason 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 000547

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2019
TAGS: PGOVREL PREL KDEM PHUM PINR SOCI RS
SUBJECT: PAMFILOVA EXPECTS GREATER RESONANCE WITH MEDVEDEV
ON CIVIL SOCIETY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

REF: MOSCOW 370

Classified By: Ambassador John Beyrle; reason 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Ella Pamfilova, recently re-appointed by
Medvedev as the head of the Presidential Council on Promoting
the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, admitted
on March 4 that the Council had not been very successful
during the last year of Putin's presidency, but was
optimistic that Medvedev would view its work differently.
She said that unlike the Office of the Ombudsman and the
Public Chamber, the Council was independent of the rest of
the government and its job was to advise Medvedev. She
expects that she will meet with Medvedev every two months,
and that he will meet with the entire Council, whose members
include some harsh government critics, no less than twice a
year. Pamfilova looks forward to improved relations between
Russia and the U.S., and believes that current economic
crisis may give Russian citizens the impetus to ask for a
voice in how they are governed. End Summary.


2. (SBU) On March 4 Ambassador Beyrle met with Ella
Pamfilova, re-appointed by Medvedev February 10 as head of
the Presidential Council on Promoting the Development of
Civil Society and Human Rights (reftel). Pamfilova was first
appointed to this position in November 2004 by Putin. Prior
to this she had served as the chair of the President's Human
Rights Commission created in 2002 and runs her own human
rights NGO "For Civil Dignity" that focuses on children's
issues.

The Council's Final Year Under Putin Not "Successful"
-------------- --------------


3. (C) In a surprisingly candid admission, Pamfilova said
that the last year of the Council's work under Putin was not
very successful, after which she felt she no longer wanted to
continue as its head. She explained that in mid-2007 the
Council had developed a plan for observing the upcoming
December 2007 State Duma elections that received a cold
response from the Kremlin. Despite this, after Putin asked
she agreed to stay on and work with Medvedev because she had
a good working relationship with him when he was Chief of

Staff at the Presidential Administration. She added that
while he was Chief of Staff, Medvedev struck her as a very
smart man who knew not only his job, but also what other
people on the staff were doing. She recalled that she and
the Council were more effective while Medvedev was Putin's
Chief of Staff, during which time he often asked her opinion
on different subjects.


4. (C) Despite her and the Council's undefined status during
the first nine months of Medvedev's presidency, she decided
to weigh in after the government proposed a new stricter law
on espionage in December 2008. Pamfilova said that she wrote
a letter to Medvedev as head of the Council questioning the
law, even though an earlier letter from Human Rights
Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin had already been rebuffed. To her
shock, she continued, Medvedev said that he agreed with her
and asked that the proposed law be taken back for reworking
by the Presidential Administration. She believed that any
new law passed by the Duma will take into account her
concerns. She has also discussed with Medvedev her and the
Council's opposition to restrictions on non-governmental
organizations, one of which she still heads. She said the
Council is interested in the implementation of Putin's Decree
485 from June 2008 that provided that grants from foreign
sources will be taxed to the Russian NGO recipient unless the
foreign organization is included on a list of exempt
organizations. She joked that as the heads of NGOs, she and
several members of the Council are the "fifth column" that
receives foreign funding about which Putin often speaks.

Pamfilova Approves of the "New Look" of the Council
-------------- --------------


5. (C) Pamfilova took pains to separate the work of the
Council from that of the Office of the Ombudsman and the
Public Chamber, institutions she felt were part of the
government. The Ombudsman's office was like a legal
institution, whereas the Council's job is to provide advice
to the President. She said that her job is unpaid, although
the Presidential Administration does provide the Council
incidentals like small, but prime office space on Novaya
Ploshad (she said the Council has a largely volunteer staff),
a car and money to hold conferences. She denied she was an
government official ("chinovnik") because she is not
subordinate to anyone. She said she saw herself as head of
the Council, not as a human rights advocate, but nonetheless
a conduit (perhaps the only one) through which the Council's

MOSCOW 00000547 002 OF 003


members, who she described as more interested in Russia's
democratic development than those people on the Public
Chamber, could get their points across to the government.
While she only met with Putin every quarter, she said that on
February 10 Medvedev agreed that they would meet every two
months ("and more often, if necessary") and that he would
meet with the entire 36-member Council no less than twice a
year. She admitted that access to Medvedev will be key to the
success of the Council.


6. (C) She noted that, given Medvedev's professionalism, she
will insist that proposals made to him must be of the highest
quality. She added that the initial topics that the Council
will discuss during its first full session on April 10 will
be new legislation governing NGOs, restrictions on meetings
and demonstrations, and mass media. She also expects that
with the addition of Kiril Kabanov from the NGO National
Anticorruption Committee, and Yelena Panfilova from
Transparency International's Moscow office to the Council,
that anticorruption will also take center stage. She said
she was buoyed by Medvedev's recent statement during an
official visit to Spain that he expected the Council to
criticize the government, but added that she would have the
Council start "softly" so that it could have greater success
later.

Possible Movement on Greater Democratization, Human Rights
-------------- --------------


7. (C) Pamfilova ventured that one possible effect of the
current economic crisis could be that Russian citizens will
ask for a greater role in how they are governed. She noted
that because of the crisis, Russians may believe less in the
national superiority complex that they had come to believe
under Putin and will see themselves as part of the rest of
the world that is suffering through the current global
crisis. She added that part of the reason for her support
for liberal democrats is that they have good values that
should be passed on to future generations. Ambassador Beyrle
noted a recent discouraging poll in which only eight percent
of Russians said they believed they could influence the
political process. Pamfilova said that people need to change
the way they see themselves and their government; without
this, the people will not ask for better governance. She
noted that the crisis has already seen the rise of the
"avtomobilisti" movement initially as a reaction to a
economic problem, but that it has made people question how
the government makes decisions.


8. (C) Another issue on which she thinks the Russian
government may change its position is Protocol 14 of the
Council of Europe dealing with the European Convention on
Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in
Strasbourg. Pamfilova said that the Russian government has
not supported Protocol 14 for several reasons, especially
since they do not see anything in it for them. Pamfilova
explained that in addition to the fear of the added ease with
which Russian citizens could appeal directly to the ECHR, the
Russian government does not feel that their fellow Europeans
will "like us any more" if they agree to the Protocol and
Russian citizens themselves have not asked their own
government to accede to it. Pamfilova hoped that if this
began to matter more to the people, the government might be
convinced to change its stance on the COE's Protocol 14.

Pamfilova Welcomes "Reset" in Russian-U.S. Relations
-------------- --------------


9. (C) Pamfilova said that after the effects of the August
2008 conflict with Georgia on Russian-U.S. relations, she is
hoping for an improvement. She added that Lukin had invited
her to participate in the next session of the dialogue
between the Ombudsman's office and the Carnegie Endowment to
be held in Washington this spring; she doubted she could
attend because of the Council's start-up commitments, but
agreed to try to visit the U.S. this year. She remembers
meeting with Secretary Clinton during one of the Secretary's
visits to Moscow as First Lady during the 1990's.

Comment
--------------


10. (C) Pamfilova is candid, direct, and dynamic, all
essential qualities to move the civil society, human rights
and democratization portfolio forward in Russia. She is
greatly respected within the human rights community for her
history of forthright criticism of the Russian government's
actions in Chechnya. In Medvedev, she believes she may have
an interlocutor who is more willing to take into account the
interests of the Council. While circumspect in her comments,

MOSCOW 00000547 003 OF 003


she clearly sees a real distinction between him and Putin on
these issues.
BEYRLE