GENEVA, June 21./TASS/. The Russian delegation to the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council pointed out on Wednesday that international human rights mechanisms have no future as long as there is no respect for the sovereignty of states, or their cultural and national identities.

"Western countries and their individual satellites are in principle characterized by racist and neo-colonial views," said Yaroslav Yeremin, a member of the Russian delegation, addressing the session. "We believe that without respect for the sovereignty, historical, cultural, religious and national characteristics of states, international human rights mechanisms have no future," he said. The events of the past year have shown that the West seeks to inflict as much damage as possible on Russia and the Russian world.

The diplomat drew attention to efforts in the West to rewrite history and the results of World War II, whitewash war criminals who advanced in practice the theory of racial superiority and glorify those who collaborated with the Nazis. In Europe, the United States, Canada and some other countries, "racist ideas and values are being openly propagated, and radical nationalists are rearing their heads."

In Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine, and Estonia, "attempts to split society along ethnic and linguistic lines" are becoming more common, and "a steady rise in xenophobic and racist manifestations, outbursts of aggressive nationalism, chauvinism, and other forms of racial and religious intolerance" has been observed, Yeremin added.

What has happened in the past year has shown that "two-faced practices have been used by the West with the sole purpose of inflicting as much harm on Russia and the Russian world as possible," the diplomat stressed. For this purpose, the West "is ready to use whatever resources and means." This was the case in Nazi Germany, when "tens of millions of Russian people and people of other nationalities were destroyed, during the Cold War and during the last three decades, when the US, Europeans and their NATO allies made it a rule to bomb and bring troops into independent countries," to kill civilians and wreak havoc, Yeremin emphasized.

"All this can be clearly seen in the case of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria," he stated. "There should be no place for neo-colonialism, racism, intolerance, and stigmatization," in the Human Rights Council, he summed up.