MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Calls of the human rights and humanitarian organizations to exclude Russia from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) over its policy in Syria are inadequate and contradict the logic, Russia's Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova said on Tuesday.
"We can only regret that the series of absurd proposals continues, those proposals have nothing to do with reason, logic and adequate reaction to the work carried out in Russia, carried out in order to protect human and citizen rights and freedoms," Moskalkova told reporters.
Russian lawmaker Adalbi Shkhagoshev described the call as farcical.
"The demand by human rights activist to expel Russia from the UNHCR is a humanitarian farce and speculation around the policy of sanctions [against Russia]," Shkhagoshev told RIA Novosti.
He stressed that the situation resembles that of late 1990s when activists saw terrorists in the North Caucasus as "mere rebels."
"In those darkest hours for our country, there were no experts ready to describe the bandits as terrorists and Russia as a country saving the world from the terror anarchy," the lawmaker stressed.
The West blames Moscow and Damascus over alleged bombings of civilian population and armed opposition groups in Syria. Russia and the Syrian government dismiss the accusations, insisting that they only strike terrorist positions, while blaming the United States of their inability to differentiate between so-called “moderate opposition” and terrorists.
