Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

West’s Craven Approach on Human Rights Decried by Russian Opposition Leader

Window on Eurasia

The International Olympic Committee’s “limp and late” reaction to the three-year jail sentence of ecologist Yevgeny Vitishko is but the latest example of “the senselessness of waiting for international interference on issues involving the defense of human rights” in Russia, according to Sergey Mitrokhin, a leader of the opposition Yabloko Party.

Despite the fact that everyone knew about the persecution of Vitishko and other environmental activists, Mitrokhin points out, the IOC “reacted only the day after his sentence took effect,” two months after it was imposed, and did so “very softly and formally asking only for materials on the case” (echo.msk.ru/blog/sergei_mitrohin/1259264-echo/).

By acting in this way, the IOC demonstrated once again that “there rules complete and final multi-polarity and tolerance to anyone including dictators and cannibals.” Its members are prepared to sell out their principles “’for the beauty of sport’” on any and all occasions. And Western countries in general are only ready to express “their concern.”

Why? Mitrokhin asks rhetorically. Because this is now “the style of Western interaction” with the current Russian government.

“In the West, they give the impression that they do not know how the residents of the Kuban are restricted in their property rights so that their lands can be expropriated more quickly for clearing the land for the construction of Olympic sites.” And now that the games are on, Mitrokhin says, “they do not see the persecution of civic activists in the Kuban” either.