EU liberals support revival of Helsinki Process in Russia

TALLINN. March 7 (Interfax) – Members of EU liberal and democratic parties and movements said they were concerned that Moscow was straying from its international obligations in the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and offered to revive the Helsinki Process.

“Russia’s abrupt deviation from the democratic standards enshrined in the 1993 constitution, from Russia’s international obligations in the Council of Europe and the OSCE – all this suggests the Helsinki Process should be revived,” the EU Parliament deputy from Estonia, Kristiina Ojuland, said in an interview with Estonian newspaper Postimees published on Thursday.

“When suggesting the Helsinki revival, liberals firstly rely on the opinion of the Russian human rights activists and researches of international organizations,” Ojuland said.

Ojuland said that the diplomacy of “tolerance” towards Russia was “deeply misguided” because ignoring and avoiding problems would bring more difficulties in the future.

The EU deputy said that the Helsinki Process revival has been discussed at the recent congress in the Unites States, in which the EU deputies headed by leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, Guy Verhofstadt, U.S. senators Jim McGovern and Benjamin Cardin and a Russian delegation comprising human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva, opposition politician Mikhail Kasyanov, State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov, political expert Lilia Shevtsova and son of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Pavel, residing in the U.S., participated.