A group of 71 US congressmen, mainly Republicans, have sent a letter to President Barack Obama demanding that the administration withdraw from the working group on civil society of the top-level Russian-American Commission until the Kremlin replaces the group's Russian coordinator, first deputy head of Russia's presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov.

While supporting the setting up of the Commission, Russian human rights defenders expressed discontent with Surkov's appointment as the coordinator of the working group on civil society, associating him with measures to "curtail the freedom of the press, to stifle free competition within the political system, and to build barriers against the development of civil society."

http://eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/12252/