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Ashton concerned about Russia muzzling opposition

12 September 2012, 10:14 CET
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(STRASBOURG) - EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed concern Tuesday about Russia's lack of dialogue and openness in dealing with the opposition, and said the situation was getting worse.

"Since May, we have been seeing less and less dialogue and openness on the side of the authorities, and rather more intolerance of any expression of dissenting views," she told the European parliament.

"Instead of stronger safeguards for the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms, we have seen a string of measures all chipping away at them."

Ashton was speaking less than a month after a Moscow court sentenced three feminist punk rockers to two-year jail terms after they ridiculed President Vladimir Putin in a stunt in Russia's main church.

Ashton reiterated her "serious concerns over ... the overall worsening situation for civil society in Russia".

"We have supported some NGOs in their activities and will continue to offer our support to their contribution to the modernisation of Russia," she added.

"We do so because the EU has a strong interest in a stable, prosperous and democratic Russia, and we have been offering our full support to all those in Russia who share this goal.

She added: "Taken together, the package of legislation limiting the freedom of assembly, restricting NGOs, curtailing the freedom of the Internet, the Pussy Riot case... constitutes a trend that is of very serious concern to the European Union".

Ashton has already condemned last month's Pussy Riot sentence as "disproportionate".

She has also criticised a surge in the prosecution of opposition activists and the failure to elucidate deaths such as that of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in jail in 2009.


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