Clinton Urges Russia Respect Human Rights And Democratic Process

(RTTNews) - Having failed to win specific pledges from Moscow on tougher sanctions against Iran, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Russia to respect human rights and the democratic process.

She made the call while addressing students at Moscow State University before winding up her European tour Wednesday.

She told a 2,000-strong audience that their country's prosperity was dependent on its willingness to cultivate core freedoms, including the freedom to participate in the political process.

"Citizens must be empowered to help formulate the laws under which they live....They need to know that their investments of time, money and intellectual property will be safeguarded by the institutions of government," Clinton said.

"In an innovative society, people must be free to take unpopular positions, disagree with conventional wisdom, know they are safe to challenge abuses of authority," she said in an apparent reference to the Kremlin's rollback of democracy.

An opposition alliance comprising liberals, leftists and nationalists opposed to President Vladimir Putin's policies was denied chance to contest parliamentary elections in 2007, which was seen as a pre-planned move making things easier for the ruling United Russia, which projected him as the Prime Minister candidate.

Clinton expressed Washington's 'great concern' over attacks on journalists and human rights defenders in Russia, "because it is a threat to progress."

She told the students how the book "The Brothers Karamazov" by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky influenced her life, in particular the parable of the Grand Inquisitor, which she saw as "an object lesson against servitude."

"I believe one of the greatest responsibilities we have as human beings is to open ourselves up to the possibility that we could be wrong," she said. "One of the greatest threats we face is from people who believe they are absolutely, certainly right about everything and they have the only truth and it was passed onto them by God, she added"

Clinton concluded on a positive note, calling for a feeling of partnership between Russians and Americans, to which the students responded with polite applause.

Earlier, replying to media questions on the failure of the Russian authorities to trace the killer of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and on the imprisonment of ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Clinton said: "Every country has its criminal elements, people who try to abuse power. But in the last 18 months... there have been many of these incidents. I think we want the government to stand up and say this is wrong."

Clinton unveiled a statue of the American poet Walt Whitman, often labeled the father of free verse, as well as being a prominent figure adopted by the gay pride movement, on the university's campus.

A statue of Russian romantic poet Alexander Pushkin was placed at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., in 2000.

Before returning to Washington late Wednesday, Clinton was traveling to Kazan, thus becoming the first US Secretary of State to visit the capital of religiously and ethnically diverse Tatarstan.

In a city where Russian Orthodox and Sunni Islam are the dominant faiths, Clinton will meet with religious leaders and young Muslims.

During the last leg of her five-day European tour that also covered Switzerland, Britain, and Ireland, Clinton held talks with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and President Dmitry Medvedev, but could not meet Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, as he was visiting China.

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