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Refusal of Baltic countries to open Russian cultural centers deemed discrimination of Russian-speaking residents’ rights

Head of Rossotrudnichestvo claims centers are not opened “due to political reasons"

Photo courtesy of Rossotrudnichestvo's press service

Photo courtesy of Rossotrudnichestvo's press service

MOSCOW, September 6 (Itar-Tass) - Refusal of Baltic countries to open Russian cultural centers are additional steps towards discrimination of Russian-speaking residents’ rights, Head of Rossotrudnichestvo (Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation) Konstantin Kosachev told a news conference devoted to the authority’s fifth anniversary.

The centers in those countries are not opened “due to political reasons,” he said. “The Baltic states say clearly that they do not want to sign agreements of the kind with Russia. They believe that the centers may affect those countries’ interests as they claim we will be cooperating with Russian-speaking residents against the authorities. This is nonsense.”

“It is neither a plan nor an intention of Rossotrudnichestvo to mobilise whoever and against whomever; we are involved in a humanitarian work,” Kosachev said.

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