The Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs met with the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities.
The Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin held a meeting with the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov (Kazakhstan). The meeting was attended by Vladimir Dzhabarov, First Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Grigory Karasin noted the great number of issues in relations between Russia and the OSCE that need to be resolved. The senator stressed the importance of protecting the rights of national minorities and other ethnic groups at the OSCE platform.
In particular, as noted by the parliamentarian, nowadays in Ukraine, the Russian language is being actively squeezed out of the political, social and cultural life of the country. Grigory Karasin added that the drafting of a law on national minorities, which is allegedly being carried out in Ukraine, is, in fact, an attempt to mislead the international community.
In his opinion, it is unacceptable that the established concept of ”national minorities“ be replaced by the amorphous term of ”national communities“, which can be understood as phenomena far away from the problems of national minorities and discrimination of the Russian-speaking population.
With regard to the law ”On the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine“, it was noted that it does not correspond to generally recognized approaches and proven practice in the field of implementing the rights of indigenous peoples and contains an obvious potential for conflict.
“We cannot agree with the optimistic assessments given by the OSCE to the situation in the Baltics. The authorities of Latvia and Estonia are stepping up their efforts to finally oust the Russian language from public and political life. A full-scale purge of Russian news agencies and local Russian-language media is underway. We remain concerned about the persisting problem of mass statelessness in Latvia and Estonia, as well as the lack of a number of political and social rights for “non-citizens”, the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs noted.
Grigory Karasin called on the leadership and specialized structures of the Organization to work more closely on the outlined issue together with the authorities of the said countries, as well as with the European Union.
The Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs pointed out that Russian senators are determined to continue their work on protection of the rights of national minorities at the OSCE platform.
Kairat Abdrakhmanov expressed hope that the Russian Federation will continue to play a significant role in the OSCE. In his opinion, no issues in the Organization can be resolved without the participation of Russia.
The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities informed about his participation in the Third International Conference “Defend the Future” held in Moscow.
The parties ”synchronized their watches“ on current pressing issues of international politics.