Kerry meets Russian rights activists amid crackdown US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian rights activists Wednesday as he faced a tough balancing act between trying to find common ground with the Kremlin on Syria and signalling support for the country's embattled civil society. Representatives of several rights groups accused Washington of turning a blind eye to a crackdown on freedoms and prioritising cooperation with the Kremlin over human rights. Kerry expressed admiration for Russia's rights groups who have over the past weeks wrestled with an unprecedented campaign of searches. Kerry met some of Russia's leading rights activists including Lyudmila Alexeyeva of the Moscow Helsinki Group and Alexander Cherkasov from Memorial. Images and soundbites