DISINFO: International human rights organizations fuel Russophobia
SUMMARY
The international system for protecting human rights continues to be degrading. Its institutions, virtually controlled by the West, demonstrate political bias, hypocrisy and overt selectivity. They have ignored flagrant violations against the residents of Donbass for eight years. These organisations not only ignore Russophobia, but even encourage it.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Russophobia.
The United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many other humanitarian organisations are committed to protecting human rights everywhere in the world, where they have access. The fact that these and other organisations criticise Russia sharply does not mean that they are Russophobic. They only try to highlight Russia’s poor human rights record and attract international attention to it.
A years-long opposition leader and a vocal critic of Putin, Alexei Navalny was arrested at an airport outside Moscow upon his return to Russia from Germany in January 2021 and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for an alleged parole violation. He was later tried on other charges and is still in a penal colony. In 2011, Navalny established the Anti-Corruption Foundation, a non-profit organisation which investigates alleged corruption by high-ranking Russian government officials.
Political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was arbitrarily arrested in Moscow in April 2022 and sentenced to 25 years in prison on charges of high treason. He is an ardent critic of the Russian authorities. Kara-Murza played a key role in promoting the Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
According to various estimates, the number of political prisoners in Russia ranges from several dozens to several hundred. Due to poor conditions in most Russian prisons and penal colonies, many political prisoners – and criminals for that matter – have health issues, but do not receive adequate medical treatment.
That said, international human rights organisations are not fomenting Russophobia. They are only trying to draw attention to human rights abuses in Russia.
Finally, there is no evidence that any ethnic nationals, including ethnic Russians or Russian speakers, are facing persecution at the hands of the Ukrainian authorities in Donbas or elsewhere, much less the danger of annihilation on grounds of nationality, ethnicity, or cultural belonging. This has been confirmed by reports issued by the Council of Europe, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the OSCE.
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