Parliament expected to back demands for crackdown on human rights violations in Russia

The Parliament

MEPs are this week expected to back a resolution which calls on the Russian authorities to “put an end to impunity” in the country.

Parliament’s non-binding resolution on the next EU-Russia agreement will be voted upon by members in Strasbourg on Thursday.

It contains several references to human rights and the rule of law, and “stresses the need for the Russian authorities to put an end to impunity in the country, as well as to politically motivated persecutions, arrests and detentions”.

The paper also “emphasises the need to cease using repressive measures against the political opposition”.

It seeks to ensure that “full light is shed on the many violations of human rights that have occurred” in Russia.

These, it says, include the imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the deaths of Sergei Magnitsky, Alexander Litvinenko, Anna Politkovskaya, Natalya Estemirova and others.

Khodorkovsky is a former oil tycoon and was once said to be Russia’s wealthiest man, he was jailed on allegedly trumped up fraud charges in 2003.

His and the other cases, according to the resolution, have yet to be investigated in an “impartial and independent fashion”.

The vote in Strasbourg comes as the second anniversary approaches of Khodorkovsky’s conviction, which resulted in his prison sentence being extended to 2016.

It also comes in the wake of the recent US Senate approval of the so-called Sergei Magnitsky act.

This will prevent any Russian officials suspected of involvement in his death – and more generally, those Russian officials involved in human rights abuses, such as those involved in the Khodorkovsky case – from entering the US.

Parliament recently angered some senior Russian officials by shortlisting members of the jailed punk band, Pussy Riot, for its Sakharov prize.

Meanwhile, in a separate development senior MEP Graham Watson has used the presentation of the Nobel peace prize to the EU in Oslo on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the imprisonment of Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo.

Watson, who is a member of parliament’s China delegation, said, “The Nobel peace prize should serve as a reminder to every European citizen of why we are in the EU.

“We are here to never see a return to the dark days of nationalism and war, of detention for speaking freely and denial of human rights in countries in which these freedoms are still denied.

“But this is also a reminder of other Nobel peace prize winners. Dr. Liu Xiaobo is still in prison for ‘subverting authority’, and his wife under house arrest.

“Instead of having three different EU presidents all too keen to collect the prize, Xiaobo’s prize had to be lain on an empty chair. The contrast speaks for itself.

“The parliament report on relations between the two countries, due to be voted in committee tonight, is therefore timely. I hope that, despite attempts by some on the centre-right to remove all reference to Liu Xiaobo, we mark both occasions accordingly.” hairy girls hairy woman https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php https://www.zp-pdl.com займ онлайн на карту без отказа