Putin denies human rights violations in Russia

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said he disagrees that there were human rights problems in Russia in 2012, adding that election campaigns are accompanied by accusations of human rights violations all over the world.

“I don’t believe we had any special problems with human rights in 2012. We had an election campaign in 2012,” Putin told a press conference following his meeting with his French counterpart Francois Hollande.

Putin recalled that two election campaigns (parliamentary and presidential elections) were conducted in Russia in 2012.

“In every country, and you can’t not agree with that, political competition intensifies during major election campaigns, and that is always accompanied by calls made on the other party or third parties in this dispute to back this or that party, and people always talk about some violations,” Putin said.

“I don’t think anything changed in Russia in this regard in 2012. We made a choice in favor of democratic development back in the early 1990s, and Russia has no intention of leaving this path,” Putin said, responding to a question from French journalists, who said year 2012 was a hard year for Russia in terms of human rights observance.