MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - The U.S. has not officially notified Russia of its withdrawal from the working group on civil society issues of the Russian-U.S. bilateral presidential commission, the Russian Foreign Ministry's envoy on human rights, democracy and supremacy of law Konstantin Dolgov said.
"This information has reached us from U.S. officials. It has until now reached us verbally, we have not yet received any written official documents on Washington's decision to withdraw from this format of dialogue with Russia," Dolgov told Interfax on Friday.
Dolgov is co-chairman of the Russian part of this working group. The United States is represented by U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Thomas Melia.
Responding to a question as to how Russia will react to the U.S. decision, the diplomat said: "We will react officially when we get official notification."
"We can now say that Russia made specific proposals to our U.S. colleagues to call another meeting of the working group, which was to be held in Moscow, throughout 2012," Dolgov said.
Dolgov said Russia has offered the United States several options for such a meeting and also made specific proposals in the format of a discussion based on the agenda of the group, which was approved by the administration of the two countries.
"Unfortunately, we never received the U.S. consent to come to Russia to take part in the official meeting of the group. All of our proposals remain in force, we have not recalled them. We are ready to continue helping Russian civil society, which wants to continue talking with the U.S. colleagues, including in the format of this group," Dolgov said.
"We are prepared to do our best here. If the Americans make a different decision, we will react to that when we are officially notified about that," he said.
In the meantime, Melia confirmed the U.S. withdrawal from the working group to Interfax on Friday.
Because the Russian government has taken actions aimed against civil society, this working group is no longer an appropriate or effective forum for promoting the expansion and strengthening of civil society, Melia said.
At the same time, Melia said Russia and the United States will continue working together in the sphere of human rights with the Russian government and representatives of civil society.
Melia also said the United States continues to support civil society in Russia and will continue working with Russian civil society to support its goals, including by further strengthening relations between Russian and U.S. civil societies.
The U.S. government is ready for fair and open dialogue on civil society and human rights with the Russian government and civil society, and the United States will continue expressing concerns, both publicly and privately, about the new laws restricting civil society activities, during intergovernmental contacts, he said.
Other issues handled by the working group, namely, issues relating to children, the fight against corruption, human trafficking, and the situation in prisons, can be resolved in other working groups and/or other structures, Melia said.
In the meantime, the working group on civil society is no longer mentioned on the page of the Russian-U.S. presidential commission on the U.S. State Department website.