Russia has questions for Council of Europe regarding human rights in Latvia, Estonia - Duma deputy
MOSCOW. April 20 (Interfax) - Members of the Russian delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) will ask Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks whether he will bring up the issue of non-citizenship in Latvia and Estonia, says Russian State Duma international affairs committee head Alexei Pushkov, who leads the Russian delegation to PACE.
"We will ask Muiznieks whether he plans to bring up the issue of Latvia and Estonia parting with the institution of non-citizenship," Pushkov told journalists.
Russia will also ask him about marches of former Waffen SS veterans in Latvia, he said.
"We would like to understand whether his activities as a defender of human rights in the Council of Europe imply condemnation of such marches going against all possible standards in principle, including those of the Nuremberg Trial and, as they say, the civilized world in general," Pushkov said.
The Russian delegation would also like to know the commissioner's position on a bill prohibiting instruction in the Russian language in the Estonian vocational education system. Pushkov argued that such a ban signals a continued campaign toward ousting the Russian language from the Estonian educational system.
"This contradicts the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, which stipulates that languages of national minorities should exist and should be languages in which people can receive instruction up to the university level, which is actually the case in other European countries," he said.
