Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-18-Speech-4-301"

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"Madam President, the problems with the rule of law in Russia are not random aberrations but a cancer, spreading systematically. We are in phase 2 of the Putin era, with Mr Medvedev as window-dressing, and the third phase is currently in preparation. Mr Putin began his first phase with the second Chechen war, an attack on a small country that was akin to genocide and was motivated by massive colonial interests in its raw materials. Since then, the matter has escalated; the rule of law and freedom of the press have been curtailed, human rights defenders such as Karinna Moskalenko have been pursued all the way here to the European capital of Strasbourg, and we have seen a total lack of progress and, as I said earlier, not just random aberrations but the systematic loss of the little democracy and rule of law that remain. Therefore, the European Union must show considerably more vigour. In our negotiations on an agreement, we owe this to the people – Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko and many others – who have died for daring to investigate these aberrations or call a spade a spade. Anyone discussing the subject openly in Russia puts their life at risk, and each time there is talk of a mysterious, obscure context. Therefore, we who live in freedom and relative safety have a duty to ensure that some light is shed on the circumstances at long last, and that we in this House at least do what we can; that is, to speak clearly and frankly to the Russian powers that be. After all, that is the only language they understand, as Elena Bonner made clear in her moving speech yesterday. Let us follow the example set by courageous people such as Elena Bonner and Andrei Sakharov, and let us stop being hypocritical and kidding ourselves at long last. Let us tell it like it is. This would be the best service we could render the Russian people."@en1
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