MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. The Russian diaspora in the West has become a target for harassment, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said at a meeting of the governing board of the Foundation for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad on Thursday.

"In his address, the governing board’s chairman Mikhail Galuzin emphasized that the importance of the Foundation’s human rights activities was growing amid the aggressive Russophobic campaign that the collective West has unleashed in many countries, turning the diaspora into a target of increasingly sophisticated harassment," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

According to Galuzin, in the current difficult situation, the Foundation remains a much needed and quite effective mechanism working in the interests of Russian compatriots residing overseas, the ministry noted.

The governing council also endorsed the Foundation’s key activities for 2023. "Providing comprehensive support to our compatriots overseas was confirmed as one of the Foundation’s key missions along with the need to protect their rights and interests, unite the members of Russian-speaking communities around the idea of patriotism, strengthen coordinating bodies, help our compatriots preserve their Russian cultural identity and resist attempts to divide and discredit the ‘Russian World," the Russian Foreign Ministry added.