| This week in Geneva there will be a vote on a very scandalous, from Russia's point of view, resolution of the UN Commission on Human Rights. This resolution on the situation in Chechnya was introduced by representatives of the European Union at the end of last week, at the 60th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, currently taking place in Switzerland.
The essence of the Europeans' claims boils down to the fact that the Russian authorities do not properly investigate the facts of offenses committed by federal and security forces in the Chechen Republic. Condemning the terrorist attacks committed in Russia, the authors of the document call for a political solution to the Chechen conflict while respecting the territorial integrity of Russia.
Moscow regarded this move by the European Union as “unfriendly and inappropriate.” Last Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Yuri Fedotov summoned the Moscow “Eurotroika” to Smolenskaya Square - the Ambassador of Ireland, currently presiding over the EU, Justin Harman, acting. the head of the representative office of the Commission of the European Community, Vincent Piket, as well as a representative of the Dutch Embassy (they will take over the baton of the EU presidency from Ireland from the next six months).
Moscow considered that the Europeans' demarche meant ignoring the positive changes taking place in Chechnya. In a conversation with a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko expressed hope that the European Union “will once again seriously weigh Russian concerns and abandon attempts to opportunistically use the Chechen issue in order to put pressure on Russia.” And the chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, called on his European colleagues to concentrate on jointly countering terrorism instead of putting political pressure on Moscow. Projects condemning Russia's Chechen policy have been proposed for consideration at the UN more than once, but there have never been enough votes for their approval. Katerina LABETSKAYA
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