E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

US wants to ‘strengthen democracy’ in Russia
WASHINGTON - The United States said Tuesday that it sought to strengthen democracy and civil society in Russia after Moscow charged that US funding to groups in the country was posing a problem in relations.
So now we have quangos in Russia, and Vlad, always a sharp operator, sees a way to discredit them, keep us off balance, and tar his domestic opponents. Brilliant.
The State Department has proposed to set up a $50 million fund that would support non-governmental groups which promote human rights and accountability in Russia, where Vladimir Putin is preparing for a third term as president.
No doubt it'll be the outreach program of the Democratic party. They can go to Russia and see how socialism really worked, right?
“This is designed to support a vibrant civil society in Russia and to allow us to work with those Russian NGOs who want to work with us,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

The fund would allow the groups “to develop their skills and their voice and their ability to represent the aspirations of Russians to increasingly deepen and strengthen their democracy,” Nuland said.

Putin has repeatedly accused Washington of bankrolling the mass street protests that first rose against his 12-year domination of Russia three months ago — a charge that US officials firmly deny.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday that Moscow has raised the issue “repeatedly” with US officials and had still not received a clear assurance about the funding’s ultimate aims.

“This activity is reaching a scale that is turning into a problem in our relations,” Ryabkov said in an interview with the Interfax news agency.

The democracy fund needs approval from the US Congress. The money would come from the liquidated US-Russia Investment Fund, which was set up in 1995 to promote a free market economy in the former communist nation.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview Sunday with CNN, said that the Russian people were “incredibly talented” and that the United States wanted to give them “a real stake in the future there.”

“That has nothing to do with us. It has to do everything with the Russian people themselves,” she said of the proposed $50 million fund. “We in the United States believe that every country would be better off if there were greater freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly."
So we'll export of bunch of nosy-parker apparatchiks on expense accounts to tell the Russians how to do it. That'll turn out well.

Posted by: Steve White 2012-04-04
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=342158