Human Rights
Saturday 23 September 2017
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Aleksey Pushkov
Chairman of the Commission on Information Policy in Russia’s Federation Council
“There is no basis for the deployment of peacekeepers on the border between the DNR/LNR and Russia. It is a zone of peace and tranquility. So let them deal with the zone of tension.”
Read more...The Russian authorities’ insistence that the mandate of UN peacekeepers in Ukraine should be limited to the area along the “borders” between Ukraine and the conflict zone in the eastern part of the country is based on their claim that the region is a “zone of peace and tranquility.” That claim is neither true nor logical. Eastern Ukraine remains a war zone and the only internationally recognized borders are those between Ukraine and Russia. -
Margarita Simonyan and RT
RT's chief editor
“The American establishment’s war against our journalists is dedicated to all the starry-eyed who still believed in freedom of speech. It was killed by those who invented it."
Read more...The U.S. probe of RT and Sputnik to determine whether they must register as foreign agents is a lawful process befitting a functioning democracy. As registered foreign agents, the outlets would still be able to broadcast without censorship – a right protected under the U.S. Constitution and laws. -
Sergey Kislyak
Former Russian Ambassador to the U.S.
“I have worked for years in the American (relations) field, and I can responsibly say that we did everything, simply everything, to maintain normal cooperation.”
Read more...Russia’s own actions endangering global security caused the deterioration of relations with the United States as well as with other countries. The conditions for lifting sanctions and returning to “normal” cooperation have been clearly presented to Russia but Moscow ignores its obligation to help maintain global security. -
Dmitry Peskov
press secretary for Russian President
”This is not about any kind of censorship. But, of course, in providing grants, the state has the right to designate certain topics that are of particular interest to the state. But to call this some kind of manifestation of censorship would be wrong."
Read more...President Vladimir Putin and his press secretary Dmitry Peskov insist that the arrest of a famed director Kirill Serebrennikov has nothing to do with politics or censorship. The involvement of the FSB’s 2nd Service calls their claim into question. -
RT
Russian government-funded international broadcaster
“U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker stated that Russian authorities intend to ‘freeze’ the situation in Donbass.”
Read more...In fact, Volker said that Russia appears ready to “live with” the status quo in the region and that there are political and economic costs for its actions in Ukraine. -
Мikhail Aleksandrov
Expert with the Center for Military and Political Research, MGIMO
“U.S. actions in Afghanistan are destabilizing, harmful to neighboring countries but above all to Afghanistan itself… ISIS was created by the United States to solve geopolitical problems in the Middle East, [but] now they see it’s not working there and are preparing to move ISIS to Central Asia.”
Read more...The U.S. is actually fighting Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, contributing to the region’s security, as well as its economic and democratic development. -
RT
Russian government-funded international broadcaster
“Afghan military are suspected of molesting minors. However, a public acknowledgement of this fact would mean a rupture of the U.S. relationship with Kabul. But Washington has invested about $700 billion in the Afghan campaign over the last 15 years and is not ready to lose its investments."
Read more...SIGAR and State Department actually acknowledged the problem publicly. -
Aleksandr Zakharchenko
leader of Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's Donetsk region
“Our desire is to create favorable conditions for the work of the OSCE mission, full cooperation. I would like the whole world to know what is happening in the DPR.”
Read more...In fact, obstruction of OSCE monitors and armed attacks on their patrols have mounted in recent weeks with clear indication of separatist responsibility. -
Dmitry Medvedev
Russian Prime Minister
“Russia carried out an operation to enforce peace. We could not do otherwise, according to both the law and our conscience.”
Read more...While he is right that Georgian forces violated international law in their attack on Tskhinvali, the following Russian invasion saw massive violations of humanitarian law. -
Denis Pushilin
leader of the Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk region
"These outrageous facts of the violations of the Minsk agreements by Ukrainian forces has not elicited a reaction on the part of the leadership of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission."
Read more...The charge by the separatist leader came after reports by the OSCE monitors noting the movement of military vehicles between Russia and separatist-controlled areas of southeastern Ukraine as well as the refusal by the separatists allowing monitors access to a separatist-controlled area. As for the monitors' reports, regularly site violations by both sides, however most are committed by the separatists. -
Tatyana Moskalkova
Russia's human rights ombudsman
“Four times fewer Russian citizens are going to the European Criminal Court [sic]. Because today the European court doesn’t meet our ideas of justice. It takes a long time to consider things, selectively.”
Read more...Russia’s human rights ombudsman, Tatyana Moskalkova, claims Russians are turning away from the European Court of Human Rights, but her figures are hard to back up. -
Russian Embassy to the United Kingdom
“Racist posters in Kiev. Russian language equal to infection and bad IQ. Food for thought.”
Read more...Despite Russian embassy claim, no such posters have been spotted in Ukrainian capital outside of an exhibition at a Kyiv art gallery in 2015.