MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. The human rights situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate, as the authorities propel the country down a path of unbridled nationalism, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights Department and Commissioner for Human rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law Anatoly Viktorov told TASS.
"The human rights situation in Ukraine continues to decline. The extremists who seized power in Kiev are steering the country along a path of rampant nationalism, Russophobia, intolerance, language discrimination and the infringement of ethnic minorities’ rights," he stressed.
According to Viktorov, while declaring its commitment to upholding human rights, "in reality, Kiev cynically brushes aside its obligations under international law" in this area. "It’s quite telling that the level and quality of the response to this phenomenon from the Western community, international institutions and NGOs obviously shows that they fall short on the magnitude and the depth of this problem," he emphasized.
The diplomat pointed out that the outcome of this policy was "persecution based on political and religious grounds that has become more frequent in Ukraine, the falsification of cases against those who fell out of favor with the regime have become massive, along with cases of violence against particularly irreconcilable opponents of the nationalist elite." He cited as an example the killing of opposition lawmaker from the Party of Regions Oleg Kalashnikov, writer and columnist Oles Buzina and journalist Pavel Sheremet.
"White Book" on Ukraine
Viktorov recalled that, during the initial stage of the internal Ukrainian conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry, which prepared and published three editions of the White Book on Ukraine, was the first to show to the international community the depth and scope of "the violations of human rights and rule of law following the coup in Kiev in February 2014, with the fraternal Ukrainian people falling victim to it."
"There is enough impartial information on the developments in Ukraine now. That includes the contribution made by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s White Books, which prompted the public to monitor and publish reports on the human rights situation in that country," he said. "I believe that was our task, which has been completed. Of course, the Russian Foreign Ministry comments on current issues on a regular basis.".