| Bush administration
concerned about human rights in Russia
Thursday, October 30th, 2003 By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration expressed concern Thursday about human rights in Russia after the arrest and jailing of the head of the Russian oil giant Yukos last week. "We are concerned about the rule of law," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. There was no direct criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose top lieutenants apparently were behind Saturday's arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but there was concern about the impact on the fragile democracy in the former Communist state. "This is something we followed closely," Boucher said. "We are concerned about the rule of law, about maintaining the basic freedom of Russians and the basic fairness of the Russian judicial system." The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is following developments closely, Boucher said. "There are many who say this is a case of selective prosecution," he said, but all the facts were not yet available. Russian news agencies reported Thursday that Putin had tightened his grip on the Kremlin by relieving chief of staff Alexander Voloshin, a move likely to deepen the political and economic turmoil following Khodorkovsky's arrest. Voloshin was the last major figure in the Kremlin from the era of Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. Voloshin reportedly offered his resignation after Khodorkovsky's arrest and jailing. President Bush has struck a strong friendship with Putin, whose sympathetic telephone call soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York and Washington raised Bush's spirits. Bush has promoted recognition of Russia as a democracy and its acceptance by the European allies. And while Putin conveniently looked the other way on Bush's scuttling of a landmark arms control treaty to clear the way for an anti-missile defense, the two leaders agreed to reduce their nuclear weapons arsenals - a step Putin intended to take anyway. Russian prosecutors have frozen a large amount of Yukos shares, plunging the Russian stock market Thursday into its second nosedive in a week. The State Department
chose not to publicly analyze the potential economic and political fallout
in Moscow. "I think I'd have to leave that for the Russians to deal
with and explain," Boucher said. "Certainly we've been watching closely
on the issue of freedoms for Russians." |