Posted on 04/30/2008 12:02:39 PM PDT by Bokababe
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has endured years of criticism over its human rights record but now it is hitting back by setting up watchdogs in New York and Paris to challenge the West over its own rights record.
Natalya Narochnitskaya, one of the leaders of the project, said the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation will offer a fresh perspective on human rights that is not hostage to the political agenda of Western governments.
"American policy under the flag of democracy and human rights in actual fact is a Trotskyist permanent revolution which serves the aim of giving them (political) mastery," she said.
"There is a double standard in that some countries are declared without sin or are surrounded by a wall of immunity," Narochnitskaya, a former member of Russia's parliament who will head the Institute's Paris office, told Reuters in an interview.
"But if the issue is with Russia or (Moscow's ex-Soviet ally) Belarus then here you will have a full hue and cry," said Narochnitskaya. She said institute was up and running and would move into premises in Paris in the next few weeks.
The initiative coincides with a growing frustration among senior Kremlin officials who believe Western governments are using human rights as a weapon to prevent Russia from reclaiming its place as a major world power.
Rights groups and Western governments have alleged that Russian elections are not free and fair, that media freedom is being suppressed and opposition activists persecuted, and that troops fighting an Islamist insurgency use brutal methods.
President Vladimir Putin, who steps down next month but will stay on as prime minister, has acknowledged his country's record is imperfect but says no country is blameless.
He has pointed to the treatment of detainees at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib detention centre in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, as well as what Moscow calls official discrimination against ethnic Russians living inside the European Union.
At an EU-Russia summit in Portugal in October last year, Putin said he wanted to set up a Russian human rights watchdog that would operate in Europe.
Narochnitskaya said her project had no links to the Russian government, though it was met with "a certain approval" in the Kremlin and it planned to apply for a government grant.
She said for now the institute had modest funding from a Russian company, which she declined to name.
One of the institute's first projects was to publish a book which argues that bloodless revolutions in ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine which installed pro-Western leaders were plotted and financed by the West.
Narochnitskaya said another project in development was to "monitor the monitors" who pass judgement on the fairness of elections. Moscow has accused monitors from European democracy watchdogs of having a political agenda.
She said the Institute also planned to send a fact-finding mission to Kosovo to assess if the rights of the Serb minority there are being respected. Russia backed its ally Belgrade in opposing independence for Kosovo.
“One of the institute’s first projects was to publish a book which argues that bloodless revolutions in ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine which installed pro-Western leaders were plotted and financed by the West.”
And that’s bad how again?
Probably Gazprom. Are there any Russian companies Putin hasn't nationlized yet? Oh yeah, the ones owned by oligarch gangsters.
Iran and Zimbabwe should set ones up as well. If Russia is going to set these up, why not them too?
Natalya Narochnitskaya
Maybe Russia can save us from being prosecuted for hate crimes when we try to stop the public schools from training children to become homosexuals.
It's not whether or not it's "bad", simply that most people don't know.
We have been using "human rights" as a weapon, so Russia just added it to its arsenal. Simply surprised that they didn't do it sooner.
Yawn. Russia we dont care. We have nothing to hide unlike you and china and iran.
Neo-Stalinists yelling Trotskyite counter-revolution.
Neo-Stalinists yelling Trotskyite counter-revolution.
““One of the institute’s first projects was to publish a book which argues that bloodless revolutions in ex-Soviet Georgia and Ukraine which installed pro-Western leaders were plotted and financed by the West.”
And that’s bad how again?”
Because it was headed up by George Soros, that’s why it was bad.
Does that mean we can give a polonium 210 martini to any US critic?
Nothing to hide, just Waco, the murder of Randy Weaver’s family and the confiscation of over 400 children in Texas.
Rodina "fascist" party - Natalya Narochnitskaya: Dr. Narochnitskaya’s writings are frequently colored by conspiracy theories. In an article posted on Rodina’s web site entitled “The Axis of Washington-Tel Aviv-Istanbul and Others,” she makes the incredible argument that the Mossad and the CIA are behind Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel:“The logic of “cui bone” (to whose benefit) gives rise to a skeptical view of the widespread cliché that Yasir Arafat supposedly stands behind the Palestinian suicide bombers. Just as the mojahedin and the Taliban had a very un-Islamic handler who was able to direct their angry potential along the necessary geo-political arc, the inter-relations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are a feature of an analytical cultivation and the influence of special servicestoday the CIA and the Mossadin the recent past, Soviet intelligence.”
While she makes no effort to condemn Palestinian terrorism, Dr. Narochnitskaya describes Prime Minister Sharon as being “steeped in blood.” Israel, according to Dr. Narochnitskaya, is little more than a tool of Western Imperialism in the Middle East whose “function in world history” is to play the role of “the champion of Anglo-American interests in the region.” The destructive consequences stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are “not because of the actions of Hamas, but instead are in full compliance with the new Anglo-American geo-strategy which demands a new situation in the Near East and in which there is no room for Arab-Muslim ‘centers of strength’Iraq, Syria and Iran.” In a deeply hypocritical statement, given how many lives were lost as a result of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Dr. Narochnitskaya describes the 2001 US-led war against the Taliban as having resulted in the “total destruction of Afghanistan” and charges that it had nothing to do with hunting down Al Qaeda, but was instead motivated by the US government’s desire to control the Afghan opium crop.
At least we let most of our baggage and mistakes hang out to the world without trying to silent folks with polonium and hitmen killing folks.
Revanchism and the polistics of resentment are mental disorders. Sadly this is endemic in Russia.
NUTS! especially to that last part.
Paging Molotov and Ribbentrop
You know, the Russkies have always been paranoid...especially of the west.
Translation: They’re jealous and feel somebody owes them something.
How tiresome. But then, the Russians are just that, tiresome.
If a Russian “human rights organization” is prepared to speak frankly and honestly about human rights abuses in Belarus and the rest of the former Soviet states, then they will be credible in any criticisms they make against abuses in the West. If not, they are just a propaganda mouthpiece of the resurgent Soviets.
No one is expecting them to be either honest or credible. That in itself is a shame.
What’s funny, is that if you exchanged the word “Russia” for “the US” in many of these quotes from Natalya Narochnitskaya , many of the people here would agree with her.
And by the way, the you editorialized the word “fascist” on the article you posted. The original passage did not include that.
We dont care about russia. They along with their allies china and iran are the main problems with the world today. Troublemakers the lot of them.
My guess is that they will be "credible", because we have a lot of human rights issues that we really are vulnerable on. They will likely put the spotlight on places that probably do have real human rights violations, but are ones we ignore because they are too politically sensitive for us -- for example, the fate of Christians in Iraq since we went to war there; the human rights of Serbs in Kosovo; etc. Russians are going to look for every place we are vulnerable and push it back at us, not because they are "honest" but because it is politically convenient for them. You can bet that, like our own choices, the "human right violations" spotlighted will be strategically chosen for the maximum political payoff.
In some ways, this may not be a bad thing. Because real issues that normally get swept under the political rug may instead see the light of day.
So the reason that you responded to a Russia thread was?
Exactly. To he11 with them
"American policy under the flag of democracy and human rights in actual fact is a Trotskyist permanent revolution which serves the aim of giving them (political) mastery," she said.
That jump off the page at me as well. She should understand that the civil rights NGO industry hates America more than Russia. If you check out the MSM over the last 5 years the stories probably run 100 to 1 in terms of civil rights violations.
Oh my. //sniff-sniff// //dab-dab//
How I've missed communist, Cold War rhetoric. It brings a tear to my eye.....
The Russians will be doing us all a favor if they will address the abuse of the Kosvo Serbs’ human rights!
You've got the "Cold War rhetoric" part right. We are back to the Cold War, again -- a war we fought, we won -- and then we forgot we won!
Before she was a neo-nazi she was Soviet ambassador to the UN during the 80's while the EVIL EMPIRE exterminated more than a million Afghans.
I think it was the Russians who forgot the USA won the Cold War, or they never heard!
Where is Major T.J. “King” Kong when you need him? It’s time to go toe-to-toe with the Russkies.
Human rights? Two or more can play at that game. The US has been doing it but not doing much actually. Words but no actual results. Soros has got to be the wizard at exploiting “human rights”
Russia’s doing it will add to the mix...why not?
Way off base there buddy. No sense at all.
Yours is one of the more clueless posts I’ve read in a while.
_________________________________________________
The Russians did not lose..they won.
It was the Soviet system that lost. A system that destroyed more Russian lives than any other ethnic group. A system run and managed by non Russians in the elite positions.
You need to catch up on your dismal knowledge of Soviet history. Start by reading Solzhenitsyn.
If Russia won the Cold War, then why do they lament the USSR's collapse while the rest of the world celebrates it?
Putin has said regarding the collapse of the SU:
“As for the Russian people, it became a genuine tragedy. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves beyond the fringes of Russian territory.”
And those tens of millions of Russians had to somehow survive in lands now controlled by mad muslim (formerly Soviet apparatchiks) tyrants.
In addition he makes reference to the Chechnyan terrorist uprising which has caused untold amount of suffering for the Russian people.
You need to recognize and understand the context of remarks that are made by Russians. You cannot apply a simplistic interpretation and expect to get away with it. If you do you are simply a tool for the exploiters of the world super pimp soros who agrees with you about Russia.
Soviet occupied republics? What are you talking about? Many of these regions were never nations as defined by a nation state. They were amorphous regions mostly converted Muslims exploited by arabs and then Turks and used to harrass Russians first and then the Soviets.
How does it happen that Tajikistan born Russians fear for their lives because they have not islamified and have not adopted Tajik ways? What kind of sick twisted
“republic” is that?
You’re missing the comedic potential here.
We need to tell the Russians about how the Gore campaign went to court to have military absentee ballots thrown out, thereby “disenfranchising” voters who were serving their country.
Lol!
How does it happen that Tajikistan born Russians fear for their lives because they have not islamified and have not adopted Tajik ways? What kind of sick twisted “republic” is that?
And what of Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine or the Baltics?
You know little about Armenia bright boy. I know little about Belarus and Ukraine but I betcha you know less.
As for Armenia, most Armenians I know are grateful to Russia. NOT the SOVIET UNION. The Russian army succeeded in gaining most of Ottoman Turk occupied Armenia during World War I, but their gains were lost with the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
If it weren’t for the Russian fellow Orthodox people the Armenian nation would probably have been close to extinct.
Wow, getting the popcorn here!
Sorry you are right, TJ. I didn't see it because the email began by the author saying that he "wasn't qualified to call Rodina fascist". Actually, the author was being generous, because based on these statements alone, I would have used that word.
However, the last minister of the Rodina Party, Aleksander Babakov, was Moldovan and apparently held Russian, Swedish and Israeli passports, and has "entensive business interests in the Ukraine". Given the level of xenophobia and anti-Semitism of these statements of Rodina Party members, the Israeli passport seems odd.
In any case, the Rodina Party seems to no longer exist. According to Wiki, Rodina merged with the Russian Party of Life and the Russian Pensioners Party to become the Fair Russia Party. This Fair Russia Party is described as the Liberal foil to Putin's Conservative United Russia, which again seems to make no sense if these people were actually fascists. Hmmm... this is confusing.
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