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Head of Ukraine’s self-proclaimed republic chides rights groups

Leonid Pasechnik described some of them as "selectively blind observers with double standards"

LUGANSK, December 3. /TASS/. The head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic said international rights groups ignore violations in Donbass and use double standards.

"There are those who we are able to work with in terms of humanitarian aid and defending the rights of some individual people but that’s more like an exception," Leonid Pasechnik, the republic’s head, said in an interview with TASS. "Way too many Western human rights organizations prefer to look the other way."

Pasechnik described the groups as "selectively blind observers with double standards."

Some groups ignore the plight of retirees that are deprived of their pensions, he said.

"They don’t want to question the democratic nature of the Ukrainian regime, which put hundreds of people behind bars on charges of organizing the most democratic expression of people’s will: the referendum," he said. "They have different orders and different ground rules defining their existence and activities."

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