Rechercher

/ languages

Choisir langue
 

Russia - EU

EU concerned over Russia's human rights situation

Article published on the 2009-11-18 Latest update 2009-11-18 15:09 TU

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt(Credit: Reuters)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt
(Credit: Reuters)

There is an "increasing cause for concern" regarding Russia's human rights situation, Swedish Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt said on Wednesday following an EU-Russia summit. Sweden currently holds the European Union presidency. Human rights groups earlier Wednesday had earlier called for the EU to push Russia on their poor human rights record.

Print the article

Send the article

Comments on article


According to non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch, at least five independent civic activists have been murdered over the past year while others have been beaten or harassed.

In one such case, Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial Human Rights Center in Russia, has been charged with criminal libel. Orlov had made a statement that Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of Chechnya, was responsible for the murder of Natalia Estemirova, Memorial's leading researcher in Chechnya.

A number of pressing human rights issues also include rights violations in the North Caucasus and abuses against migrant workers.

Reinfeldt said after the summit that the EU and Russia had exchanged views not only on human rights but on the rule of law and democracy.

Also on Wednesday, Russian human rights activists accused the Russian state of the unlawful death of Sergei Magnitsky, 37, a lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management fund. He died in prison on Monday of heart failure, according to authorities.

Hermitage has been under criminal investigation. It has claimed that it was swindled in a conspiracy involving 230 million dollars.

"A man who from a legal point of view was innocent died in prison in the most mediaeval way," according to a Wednesday editorial in Vedomosti, Russia's main business daily newspaper.

Magnitsky had repeatedly complained about the abysmal conditions in the prison, including "disgusting sanitation and poor hygiene conditions", according to documents from his company, Hermitage.

Activists and Hermitage has called for an investigation into his death.

"At the current stage the basis for opening a criminal investigatino is not being examined," said Anatoly Bagmet, head of the investigative committee of Moscow prosecutors.