MOSCOW, April 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian politicians and parties who have stained their names by incitement to hatred must be barred from having a say in Ukraine’s future state system, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, commenting on the report by Rita Izsak, Independent Expert on minority issues of the United Nations Human Rights Council, after her visit to Ukraine.
“We have taken notice of the Statement of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsak, following her official visit to Ukraine on April 7-14, 2014,” the ministry said. “We believe this was one of the first attempts made by a representative of international human rights mechanisms to get an objective and unbiased picture of human rights aspects of the profound systemic crisis that has gripped Russia’s brotherly state.”
“Naturally, we cannot agree with Ms Izsak’s conclusion about the allegedly harmonious situation in the area of interethnic and inter-faith relations in Ukraine, since it finds no confirmation in reports coming from that country. This conclusion disagrees with the facts cited by the independent expert herself about numerous disturbing tendencies and violations of human rights standards,” the ministry noted.
“We share the opinion that those Ukrainian politicians and parties who have tarnished their names by incitement to hatred should have no role in shaping the future of UKraine,” the ministry stressed. “The illegal, criminal order to stage the so-called counter-terrorist operation against civilian population of Ukraine’s southeastern regions that was issued by the current Kiev authorities after Ms Izsak’s visit only amplifies these words of the United Nations representative.”
“We call on the current Kiev authorities to fulfill Ms Izsak’s numerous recommendations concerning the rights of Ukraine’s Russian and Russian-speaking population and creating due conditions to ensure political participation of minorities in Ukraine and their full involvement in decision-making bodies,” the ministry said.