MOSCOW, September 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it was bewildered by the Latvian Foreign Ministry’s statement on a speech by Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian foreign ministry's human rights commissioner, at a regional conference with ethnic Russians of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

“Latvia’s Foreign Ministry claims that Moscow’s accusations against Riga over the unfavorable human rights situation in Latvia are groundless, and that in fact that country is ‘part of the free, democratic world and is proud that its residents, all of its residents, just as in all the other European Union states, are ensured all fundamental rights and freedoms’,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary.

The Latvian Foreign Ministry’s statement “is another cynical attempt to mislead the international community and Latvian residents about the actual state of things”, the ministry added.