MOSCOW, April 22 (Xinhua)
-- Russia on Monday criticized the U.
S. 2012 report on human rights and
accused it of applying double
standards, the Foreign Ministry said
Monday.
Russia believed the 2012
Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices, which was submitted to the
U.S. Congress by Secretary of
State John Kerry on April 19, misused
the humanitarian and human rights
topics in favor of Washington's
political interests, said the
ministry's Envoy for Human Rights,
Democracy, Supremacy of Law Sergei
Dolgov in an online
comment.
"The report suffers
from the same shortcomings the
previous similar reports used to do,"
Dolgov said, adding the report is
lack of sources behind its
conclusions, including the Russia
chapter.
"U.S. partners do
not want to notice the large-scale
work of Russian leadership to enhance
political and judicial systems, reforming
the law-enforcement agencies and penitentiary
establishments, fighting corruption," said
the diplomat.
He stressed that
no country was immune to problems
in human rights sphere, the
U.S. has not been an
exception.
Meanwhile, Moscow was
puzzled by the report's statements
that an alleged conflict in the
North Caucasus between Russian federal
troops and rebels, radical and
criminal groups created "atmosphere of
impunity" and human rights
abuses.
Dolgov said in the
North Caucasus, Russian law-enforcement
agencies counter terrorism threat which
is an essential task for the
U.S. too, as the recent tragic
bombing event in Boston
showed.
Russia "categorically cannot
accept such an openly politicized
substitution of notions," he
said.
He added that Moscow
expected more objective and balanced
approach of the U.S. to the
human rights issues.
Russia was
ready for an open, constructive,
equal, mutually respectful dialogue and
cooperation with the U.S. on
human rights problems, he
noted.