MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized on Friday a recent resolution on human rights in Russia as biased and called it an attempt to interfere in the country’s internal affairs.
On Thursday the European Parliament adopted a resolution that reflects its grave concern about “the deteriorating climate” for the development of civil society in Russia and refers to the recent legislation on demonstrations, NGOs, defamation and the Internet.
The non-legislative resolution urged the European Union “to exert constant pressure on the Russian authorities to meet the OSCE standards on human rights, democracy, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.”
“We consider a number of remarks and the unfounded political speculation contained in the resolution as interference in Russia’s internal affairs,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
The ministry insisted that the resolution “had been based on unconfirmed and biased information.”
The resolution cites the notorious cases of the punk band Pussy Riot, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and the opposition party member Gennady Gudkov as examples of politically motivated intimidation of opposition activists and abuse of power by the Russian law enforcement authorities.
The ministry expressed hope that the European lawmakers would avoid blowing controversial political subjects out of proportion and “finally pay attention to the fact that the human rights record in the European Union is far from being perfect, as the situation with ‘non-citizens’ in Latvia and Estonia clearly shows.”