STRASBOURG, April 08, /ITAR-TASS/. Russia is supporting and defending traditional European values absolutely alone, including in what concerns Crimea and Ukraine, Tamas Gaudi-Nagy, a Hungarian member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), told Itar-Tass on Tuesday, commenting on a report on the situation in Ukraine due to be discussed at PACE on April 9.
“Today, it might sound funnily enough for many so-called democrats, but the only guarantor of the protection of human right in the entire European space is mostly, or, if you will, only Russia,” he said. “Russia is supporting and protecting traditional European values. Here, in the Council of Europe, we are having much debate on such traditional human rights subjects as the protection of the institute of marriage, children, minorities. Of course, from the democratic point of view, Russia also has problems. Any country has problems anyway. I think these double standards came into being because the United States and all its allies sought to expand this global monopolized market and to have Ukraine a new member of this market.”
The Hungarian lawmaker said he was confident that “double standards dominate the so-called values of the Council of Europe and in all other European institutions.” “The irony is that they all are speaking about human rights and democracy but they are unable to follow the right course to solve concrete problems,” Gaudi-Nagy said.
Many Western lawmakers at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in his words, gave Russia a broadside “when it did only one thing - protected the right to self-determination, which is a basic principle of international law and is guaranteed by the United Nations Charter.” “Crimea is populated mostly by ethnic Russians,” he noted. “At the referendum, people took a decision which country they wanted to a part of. This is guaranteed by Article 1 of the United Nations Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States. Of course, we are now witnessing what is going on in Ukraine’s eastern regions, in Donetsk. We can say that the Russian-speaking population of these regions is facing serious threats. I think their fears must be clear. A strong state, many of whose compatriots are living abroad, needs certain security guarantees.”
Gaudi-Nagy expressed confidence that Russia’s possible expulsion from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe or even from the Council of Europe “would be of no help for Ukraine,” moreover, it would only weaken the positions of those countries of the Council of Europe that were committed to the idea of the protection of traditional European values. “I hope that members of the Parliamentary Assembly would reflect on this and would not impose sanctions against Russia, because this is not the case when sanctions are appropriate,” he added.
According to the Hungarian lawmaker, the Council of Europe “has no serious indicators to change the current situation.” “All the processes, any reaction prove that hidden political players, who are not seen here, are exerting a really active influence on decision-makers. They are the so-called countries of the West. I think that normal people, patriots in Western countries, in France or Germany, do not share this position of double standards, which is obvious in Kiev. And these people deserve to be furnished with objective information about what is going on here, at the Council of Europe and other European organizations, on their behalf,” he summed up.