KavkazCenter :: Caucasus

Russia was sharply criticized in an Annual Report of the US Foreign Ministry on the situation with human rights around the world. The killings of "human rights defenders and eight journalists, including prominent journalist and human rights activist, Natalya Estemirova", were mentioned in the report, released on March 11.

The report testifies that the Russian government has "weakened the freedom of expression and media independence by editorial policies of government-owned media outlets, is pressuring major independent outlets for critical coverage, and harassing and intimidating journalists, which led to self-censorship".

The report also states that the Russian authorities are trying to limit the activities of nonprofit organizations (NPO), especially foreign ones.

Special attention is paid to the situation on the territory of the Caucasus Emirate. The US government indicates that the human rights situation in the North Caucasus is continuing to deteriorate. Russian authorities and local puppet regimes are "engaged in killing, torture, abuse, politically motivated abductions, and other brutal or humiliating treatment, often with impunity", the report says.

"In Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan, the number of extrajudicial killings and disappearances sharply increased".

The report testifies that "there are numerous credible reports that security officials using torture and inhuman treatment of detainees to obtain confessions from them on charges of crimes".

The Russian foreign ministry issued a rude official answer to the US report, according to BBC News.

The Russia foreign ministry says it would like to know, how the US State Department, which "loves to moralize on the issue of human rights, would comment on tortures and inhumane or humiliating treatments in the United States itself. And not just the widely known cases in Bagram and the special prison in Guantanamo -- which, contrary to the administration's promises, was not closed -- but also in the prisons and on the streets of America".

The Russians didn't explain, however, what it all has to do with their concrete crimes in the Caucasus.

"We hope they will not forget about domestic violence that leads to killings of children - including those adopted in Russia - cases of racism and xenophobia towards immigrants, Islamophobia, privacy violation by secret services and restrictions imposed on journalists covering US operations abroad", angry Russian diplomats write.

The Russian foreign ministry thinks that "everything in the report fits traditions and rituals", despite "the declared restart of US-Russia relations".

Department of Monitoring,

[1] photo from article