The Russian Foreign Ministry says it is disturbed by the state of human rights in the European Union, with Russian diplomats saying there are "serious flaws" in that area. The ministry published a report on the issue on Tuesday which has been reviewed by the international and the Russian media.
The report mainly mentions Romani topics in connection with the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is available for download at:
http://www.romea.cz/cz/zpravodajstvi/zahranicni/ruska-diplomacie-vycita-eu-stav-lidskych-prav-cesko-kritizuje-za-pristup-k-romum
Moscow is criticizing Brussels mainly for violating the rights of immigrants; for discriminating against national minorities, particularly Russian-speaking ones; for underestimating neo-Nazism; and for its "aggressive advocacy for the rights of sexual minorities" in a concept that is foreign to other states. The authors of the report claim that the EU pretends to be "the main bastion of the fight for human rights in the world" but that EU practice "does not confirm that such claims are well-founded."
Moscow believes the situation of immigrants and national minorities appears to be "far from ideal", as their level of unemployment is frequently several times higher than that of majority populations. In addition, the public in the EU "is evidently underestimating the threat of neo-Nazism", while "the ideas and practices of nationalism in the various EU countries are beginning to influence the almost every single sphere of activity of vital importance to the EU as a whole, including foreign policy," the Russian diplomats claim, referencing the "heroizing" of former members of SS units in Estonia and Latvia and the problems caused by the anti-Semitic rhetoric of the ultra-right.
"Against such a background, the EU and its Member States consider one of their main priorities to be disseminating their neoliberal values as a universal basis for the activity of other members if the international community," the authors of the report claim. "This is especially obvious from the aggressive advocacy of the rights of sexual minorities. They are developing efforts to get other states to adopt views of homosexuality and homosexual marriage as a life norm and some kind of natural social phenomenon deserving of state support that are completely foreign to them."
Moscow, which has been striving for years to have EU visa requirements lifted for Russian citizens, criticizes the EU for "creating artificial barriers preventing entrance to its territory which restrict the freedom of movement of private persons", which manifests itself in a particularly negative way with regard to the situations of asylum-seekers and Romani people. Russia believes the EU Member States are approaching freedom of movement "hypocritically": During the Cold War they fought for it, but now they are becoming the main instruments of its suppression.
The Russian report characterizes the human rights situation in the Czech Republic as "calm overall", but notes that the "Romani question" is one of the most current problems sparking regular criticism from human rights defenders. The Czech government’s measures "have not yet made it possible to fundamentally resolve this problem".
The Russian report seems to be a response to international criticism of human rights violations in Russia, in particular its law adopted last year banning the propaganda of homosexuality among minors. BBC News reports that human rights defenders say the law does not serve to protect children but to suppress the rights of sexual minorities, referring also to an open letter in which 27 Nobel Prize winners called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to abolish the discriminatory, homophobic law.
