Russia complains about Ukraine to European Court of Human Rights

MOSCOW, Jul 22 (PRIME) -- Russia has filed a complaint against Ukraine to the European Court of Human Rights about the events following a violent coup of 2014, including discrimination against Russian businesses, the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on Thursday.

“The Russian Federation filed an inter-state complaint against Ukraine with the European Court of Human Rights under Article 33 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The complaint concerns the following main groups of violations: … the policy of discrimination against Russian companies and entrepreneurs,” the statement read.

As a result of political attacks and introduction of sanctions by Ukraine many Russian energy, banking, and telecommunication companies and their subsidiaries – Lukoil, Sberbank, VS Bank, Prominvestbank, VTB Bank, BM Bank, VKontakte, Yandex, and many others – had to suspend operations on the Ukrainian market and suffer from a significant financial damage, the authority said.

Ukraine also approved the law on sanctions in August 2014, which gave it the grounds for spontaneous introduction of any restrictions on Russian companies and people. The systemic administrative approach to politically-motivated prosecution of the Russian business violates the norms on protection of property and prohibition of discrimination that the European Convention on Human Rights proclaims, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

But international organizations and foreign countries issue money to Kiev to improve democracy in accordance with the laws approved by the European Council, but nothing is improving in Ukraine.

The list of Ukraine’s violations compiled by the Prosecutor General’s Office also includes responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities for civil deaths, unlawful imprisonment and ill-treatment of people, the practice of suppressing the freedom of speech and persecuting dissidents by banning media outlets, the policy of discrimination against Russian-speaking residents, impeding the use of the Russian language in public life, and blocking the North Crimean canal as the main source of fresh water for the Crimean Peninsula.

Russia also accused Ukraine of causing the MH17 flight crash and the deaths of 298 people on July 17, 2014 as the Ukrainian authorities failed to close its airspace over the area of hostilities.

“Ukraine is fully responsible for the deaths of the passengers and the crew of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flight MH17 on 17 July 2014 as well as for causing suffering to the relatives of those killed as it seriously violated Article 2 of the Convention (the right to life) in the substantive and procedural aspects, Article 3 of the Convention (prohibition of torture) in the procedural aspect as it failed to take any measures to close its airspace,” the complaint read.

Ukraine has been presenting fabricated evidence in order to shift its blame for the air crush onto Russia, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

End