MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Valery Fadeyev, head of the Russian Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, said Russians abroad, including in the EU, are facing aggression and harassment and urged European human rights groups to look into these cases.
"We are concerned by the increasing number of cases of aggression and harassment against Russians living abroad," he told TASS. "These actions undermine the foundations of rule of law. There shouldn’t be discrimination based on nationality or citizenship."
He said Russia didn’t register any cases of discrimination against Ukrainian citizens in the country during the events of 2014. Fadeyev said he believes European human rights groups should look into the cases of discrimination against Russians abroad and he will appeal to them to do so.
"There’s a great public response to actions by international sports authorities regarding the exclusion of Russian athletes and teams from international competition schedules," he said. "This is an issue for a separate discussion."
Some international organizations show serious discrimination, Fadeyev said.
"For example, the global network of oncology professionals OncoAlert halted cooperation with Russia," he said. "Fortunately, we still have contacts with the US (ASCO) and European (ESMO) clinical oncology groups and with the WHO."
"I hope it will remain that way," Fadeyev said.
He said assistance to oncology and other patients should be outside politics.
"It’s not even about human rights, it’s about humanism."
Otherwise, does it look like doctors refuse help to patients?" he went on to say. "This is a shameful practice by international healthcare organizations".