GENEVA, July 31. /TASS/. Russia regularly raises the issue of the status of the Russian language in Moldova with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and calls on the United Nations to condemn the actions of the Moldovan authorities, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov told TASS.
"We regularly raise this issue with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and his Office and call for a clear and unequivocal condemnation of the actions of the Moldovan authorities," the diplomat said, commenting on the removal of the Russian language from parliamentary proceedings in Moldova and the response of international human rights organizations.
Gatilov described the developments in Moldova as "a classic example of double standards that have long become the hallmark of the so-called developed democracies."
He said those countries "traditionally lecture the rest of the world on how human rights should be upheld while making exceptions for those who pledge them unwavering loyalty."
According to Gatilov, the issue of the Russian language has long been used by Russia's geopolitical opponents as a tool to "separate the former Soviet republics from Russia by any means." He said nationalist political forces hostile to Russian culture and the Russian language had been "deliberately cultivated" in those countries.
