Putin: Russia has no human rights problems

President Vladimir Putin rejected reproaches expressed to Russia in violation of human rights in the past year. "I do not think that in 2012 we had some special difficulties with human rights. In 2012, we had an election campaign," he said at a joint press conference with the French leader Francois Hollande. According to Putin, in each country, during the election campaigns, the political struggle is aggravated and the rival camps accuse each other of certain violations. This is a global practice, the president noted.

Earlier in February, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the Brazilian newspaper O Globo that talking about violation of human rights in Russia "is not serious." “To believe that Russia is some kind of autocracy where human rights are violated, where some incomprehensible events with human rights take place, is not serious,” the prime minister said. Medvedev noted that he does not consider Russia an ideal state. Nevertheless, he said, "we have a young civil society and a young developing democracy."

On Thursday, it became known that the American congressman Christopher Smith, one of the co -authors of the Magnitsky Law, was denied a Russian visa. Smith is a member of the Committee on International Affairs of the House of Representatives, where it oversees human rights. Earlier, Smith was denied by the entrance visas of the authorities of China, Cuba and Belarus.

The Magnitsky Law, signed in December 2012, Barack Obama President, prohibits the entry of a number of Russian officials and freezes their assets in the United States and in foreign organizations that are controlled by American financial institutions. Such sanctions are provided against Russians who "be responsible for major human rights violations in relation to civil rights fighters and democratic elections, as well as in relation to people who reported the arbitrariness of the authorities."

On September 6, 2012, Putin said that Russia should take adequate measures in response to the introduction of sanctions on the Magnitsky list by Western countries. “Someone wants to spoil relations with Russia,” Putin said. “But what should Russia do in such cases? Take adequate measures, announce a list of officials of the other side that has taken such measures against Russia. To do so.”