Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

A Partial Declaration of Human Rights

Transitions Online

For years, Russia has tolerated the State Department’s annual criticism of its human rights situation, but not anymore.

It was in April that Moscow finally lost patience. If America would not stop poking it with the human rights stick, it said (though not in precisely those words), Russia would pick up the stick, too. It appointed a human rights commissioner and promised to publish probes of its own.

Its first publication, a “Report on the situation concerning human Rights in certain states” came out last month [link in Russian]. It is extremely revealing, though not perhaps for the reasons its author, Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s new commissioner for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, intended.

“The idea is to show that problems in the sphere of human rights and democracy are present in all states. No one is ideal,” Dolgov explained to Kommersant Vlast after the report was published on the Foreign Ministry website.

“We do not accept attempts to persistently and intrusively teach us democracy. Sadly, some of our partners have used such tactics. It is of course important for them to carefully read the Russian report.”

If they do read the report, carefully or otherwise, they will find that many of its general concerns – domestic violence in Finland, detainee abuse in Britain, anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe – are identical to those in its American rival. Many of the sources are the same, too. Dolgov’s document is studded with references to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House.