Petr Tolstoy
Petr Olegovich
told
journalists about that following the meeting of the PACE Committee on Equality
and Non-Discrimination, held today, on October 15, via videoconference.
During the meeting of the Commission, the participants discussed the issues related to the Crimean Tatars.
“We consider those hearings only as a mockery of the principles of objectivity declared by PACE, freedom of speech and participation of all interested parties. Representatives of the Crimean Tatars, living on the Crimean peninsula, were not allowed to participate in these ”hearings“, despite our repeated requests sent to the Chair of the Commission,” said Petr Tolstoy.
He added that he had earlier sent a letter to Petra Bayr with a proposal to invite representatives of the Crimean Tatar, living in Crimea, to take part in the hearings. Petr Tolstoy stressed that two members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (organization banned in Russia) were invited to address the meeting participants, ”and they are real puppets of Ukrainian anti-Russian propaganda.“
“The only objective information was provided by the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Tatiana Moskalkova, who, despite such a blatantly biased approach of the organizers of the hearings and distinctly hostile attitude of other participants, had managed to tell about all the measures taken by the regional and federal authorities in the interests of the Crimean Tatars,” said the parliamentarian.
In particular, she mentioned the Federal Targeted Programme on Development of Crimea until 2022. That Programme includes measures for rehabilitation of repressed peoples – about 180 million USD, and that amount is bigger than that Kiev planned to spend on “settlement of national minorities” (2.5 million in 2014). In 2014–2019, important social infrastructure, including educational centers, had been constructed for representatives of repressed peoples. The construction of the Great Mosque in Simferopol, in Crimea, which is planned to be opened in 2021, is almost completed.
“I could not agree more with Tatyana Nikolaevna that the Crimean people had made their own choice and now they live in the Russian legal system, which fully protects the human rights. The level of protection of social, family and religious rights in Russia is much higher than the standards of the Council of Europe. We are convinced that the practice of double standards, once again used by the PACE structures, could lead to a new crisis in our relations. We urge our European colleagues to refrain from that harmful approach to deal with the Russian parliamentary delegation,” concluded Petr Tolstoy.
