Russia sees protecting rights of compatriots abroad as a matter of prestige

RIA Novosti
9 Mar 06

Moscow, 9 March: The Russian Foreign Ministry regards the protection
of compatriots abroad as a matter of the prestige and vital interests
of the Russian Federation.

“The Russian position is that it cannot keep out of the concerns and
the problems facing the Russian diaspora in one country or another,
particularly when it is a question of the violation of human rights
and freedoms. It is also our moral duty to fellow-countrymen, and a
matter of prestige and vital interests for the state,” Aleksandr
Chepurin, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry department for work
with compatriots abroad, has said in an interview with RIA-Novosti.

The Russian diaspora, according to the ministry, is one of the biggest
in the world and numbers between 25m and 30m people. Almost half of
them live in the CIS and Baltic countries.

“On the whole the situation in the CIS space is considerably better
than in the Baltic countries,” he said.

At the same time, the diplomat said, the continuing migration of the
able-bodied and socially-active part of the diaspora leads to a
situation whereby the ‘specific weight’ in the diaspora of the
representatives of the population on low income (pensioners, invalids,
single-parent families or families with many children) is increasing.

“What strikes one is the fact that Russians are not properly
represented in power: they, as a rule, are not represented among heads
of local administrations, in judicial or law-enforcement
structures. There have been incidents when compatriots were ‘pushed
out’ from prestigious places in the field of culture, science,
education and health care. In some countries the sore point is the
narrowing of the Russian space. I mean reduction in the number of
Russian schools and the number of TV and radio stations broadcasting
in Russian, as well as limiting access to periodical media in
Russian,” Chepurin said.

According to him, in most CIS countries the Russian-speaking
population is an important factor of domestic and foreign policy, and
bilateral relations with Russia.

“The Russian language dominates the sociopolitical and cultural life
in Belarus and is widely spread in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Moldova,” he said.

Receiving education in Russian still remains prestigious in many CIS
countries, he added.

“It is clear that reaction to violation of the rights of our
compatriots should be appropriate and be part of the general fabric of
bilateral relations,” Chepurin said.