Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, Human Rights House Foundation, had addressed an open letter to the UN in which they expressed concern about the human rights situation in Russia. The document also had number of requirements for the Russian authorities: not to apply the laws on undesirable organizations, on foreign agents and on countering extremist activities.
According to Vasilii Piskarev
Vasily Ivanovich
, Chairman of the Commission on the Investigation of Foreign
Interference in Russia's Internal Affairs, those organizations reaffirmed their
selective approach to issues of human rights protection. He added that it was
surprising that those human rights organizations unequivocally demonized Russian
laws and ignored their preventive character.
“It is difficult to imagine that any country supports involvement of minors in criminal activities, imposition of distorted historic facts, actions aimed at restraining economic development of a state,” the parliamentarian said.
He also noted the fact that those so-called “human rights defenders” continued to ignore real human rights violations in Russia's neighboring states, where in contravention of international norms, Russian-speaking citizens were not allowed to study and speak their native language, where a significant part of the population was being called “non-citizens” for decades, where activities of neo-Nazis were encouraged and promoted.
“Such a strange short-sightedness cannot but arouse suspicions of the bias of human rights defenders, who serve now as tools of political pressure used by Western states on Russia and fabricate pretexts for interfering in the internal affairs of our country,” Vasilii Piskarev said.
“It looks like the world public opinion is being shaped for new attempts of foreign states to destabilize the situation in our country, provoke street riots and protests, as the elections to the State Duma will be held in September, and then to call not to recognize the results of the elections. But all such scenarios are doomed to failure,” concluded the parliamentarian.
