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Russian Human Rights Activists Want G7 to Condemn Putin
Russian human rights activists sent an appeal to G7 leaders on Thursday, asking them to condemn President Vladimir Putin for rights violations in the country. The rights champions want leaders of the world’s most developed nations to discuss political prisoners, crackdown on opposition and protest rallies in Russia with Mr. Putin at the upcoming G8 summit.
More than twenty Russian human rights organizations sent a letter to embassies of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States on Thursday ahead of a G8 summit in Germany. They insist that the leaders of these countries “direct Mr. Putin’s attention to flagrant and large-scale violations of human rights and democratic freedoms” in the country. The right champions demand that the discussion be uncompromising and not affected by current policies, including Russia’s growing influence with its energy supplies.
The letter suggests three topics to discuss with Vladimir Putin – accusation of opposition leaders of extremist, political prisoners and crackdown on the series of the March of the Discontented rallies.
Russia’s partners in the G8 are becoming increasingly critical of Moscow’s poor human rights record. In May, Germany called on Russia not to hinder attempts to stage a protest rally at a Russia-EU summit in Samara. Authorities sanctioned the rally on the day of the appeal.
The Kremlin says that G7 leaders are not likely to agree with all statements the rights activists make in their letter. “Foreign human rights activists have repeatedly expressed their concern over similar issues in other countries,” including the UK and the United States which have been slammed in a recent Amnesty International report, says Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Russian president.
The activists still hope to secure support abroad. “We are not waiting for world leaders to solve our problems,” head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeeva told Kommersant. “But we do hope that the community of democratic nations thinks it’s important that Russia will be as democratic as they are.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 01, 2007
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