Russia again raps Baltic states over Russian speakers' rights
MOSCOW. Dec 10 (Interfax) - Russia has once again drawn the European Union's attention to alleged violations of the rights of Russian-speaking communities, "increasingly frequent manifestations of neo-Nazi sentiments" and other alleged objectionable practices in the Baltic countries.
During a regular round in Brussels on December 7 of expert-level talks on human rights between Russia and the EU, the Russians "called on the EU to take practical steps to solve problems with the observance of the rights of the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic states, the increasingly frequent manifestations of neo-Nazi sentiments, racial discriminations and xenophobia, the excessive use of force in dispersing peaceful demonstrations, the observance of the rights of migrants, and the violations of personal privacy," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The Russian and EU experts discussed "a wide range of issues on the international human rights agenda and various aspects of our cooperation in this field on international floors - at the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council," the statement said.
"The Russian side drew the attention of its partners to the objectionable practice of using human rights issues as a means of foreign policy pressure and the consequent politicization of international human rights mechanisms," it said.
"The Russian experts stated that in the EU there are no supranational support and defense mechanisms for human rights in its member states, and that the European Commission mainly focuses on assessments of human rights situations in third countries. In this context, [the Russian experts] stressed the importance of the earliest possible entry of the European Union into the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms on equal terms with the other participants," the ministry said.
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