Russia told to look in the mirror after criticizing human rights

The Latvian Foreign Ministry suggests Russia pay serious attention to ensuring democratic freedoms and human rights in its own territory, Foreign Ministry press secretary Karlis Eihenbaums told LETA, commenting on the Russian Foreign Ministry's report released on Tuesday, Jan. Jan. 14, on the human-rights situation in the European Union, which also criticized Latvia.

''We have come to the conclusion that this is yet another report from Russia which is quite far removed from objective reality. We have also concluded that the quality of this so-called report leads to serious doubts about the level of competence its authors have in the area of human rights, as well as how much they actually immersed themselves in objectively analyzing the human rights situation in individual countries. We allow for the possibility that this is yet another attempt by Russia to divert attention from the systematic human rights problems it has,'' Eihenbaums added.