Interfax: Ukraine lustration law may help legitimatize political persecution – Russian diplomat

(Interfax – October 16, 2014) Ukraine’s new lustration law may lead to political persecution in the country, but Europe has approved of this document, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s human rights commissioner, Konstantin Dolgov, has said.

“I totally agree with remarks concerning the lustration problem. Indeed, the West prefers not to comment on this law. Effectively, it is the legitimization of political persecution,” he said at a session of the Russian Federation Council’s committee for public support of people in south-eastern Ukraine on Thursday.

Europe justifies this law by its reaction, he said.

“In other words, the law is normal in the European Union’s opinion,” he said.

A large number of political prisoners are being held in Ukrainian penitentiaries today, Dolgov said.

“The Foreign Ministry and other Russian state structures are receiving an ever growing number of complaints from Ukrainian citizens whose relatives are being held in prisons without any trial or investigation. They have been held there for months. They are real political prisoners,” he said.

Such a situation is unacceptable for Europe in the 21st century, Dolgov said.