|
|
 |
Russia’s Diplomats Not Stunned by U.S. Department of State Human Right Opus
The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007 released by the U.S. Department of State is another manifestation of the double standards, Russia’s Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
The usual set of the claims to Russia, ranging from the retreat from democratic principles when ruling the country and harassment of dissenters to the pressure on freedom of speech and media, were given again and in the usual tone of a mentor, the RF Foreign Ministry commented on Russia’s section of the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007. The ministry said some sentences had been apparently copied from the previous reports, as if the masterminds “had only selected the texture for the previously worded conclusions.”
The document “abounds in allegations, references to unverified and knowingly engaged sources, errors and put-up facts,” the ministry said, emphasizing that in the United States, they had actually legalized tortures, extended the capital punishment to non-adults, denied any responsibility for the military crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and refused to join a number of human right treaties.
“We haven’t expected any objective assessment of the right defending situation in Russia from another opus of the Department of State. In the United States, they have been long viewing human rights as a lever of foreign policy,” the ministry concluded.
In the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007, the U.S. Department of State asserts that the corrupt government of Russia pressurizes independent media and violates the election right of the residents, and the security forces are engaged in killing, torture, abuse and violence, often with impunity.
www.kommersant.com
|
|
|
