US remarks on human rights violations in Chechnya part of info war: Russia
The United States is directing accusations of violating human rights in Chechnya as it is facing accusations of violating human rights of its own.
The US State Department's statement on alleged "massive human rights violations in the Chechen Republic" is part of the western information campaign against Russia, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said Friday.
Department spokesperson Ned Price said the Biden administration had called on Russia to stop supporting "repressive activities" infringing human rights by Moscow-backed local authorities in Chechnya.
"In terms of human rights, instead of engaging in lecturing, the United States should enhance its own 'principles of democracy'," the Russian diplomat asserted.
According to Antonov, Moscow sees the United States as voicing its claims and accusations in the tone of a prosecutor.
Washington's accusations are neither backed nor proven by any reliable data on the so-called 'repressions' in Chechnya, he stressed.
The US is utilizing these allegations as an attempt to interfere in the internal Russian affairs and as part of "a blatant information campaign against our country," the embassy's Facebook page quoted the ambassador as saying.
The United States is facing accusations of violating human rights in several spheres and regions around the world, including in Guantanamo Bay.
Once holding nearly 800 people seized around the world and transported to the Cuban facility, today the Guantanamo jail holds 39 men, some of them from the very first months after it opened - over 20 years ago.
More than a dozen independent UN rights experts voiced outrage that the military detention center was still operating.
"Twenty years of practicing arbitrary detention without trial accompanied by torture or ill-treatment is simply unacceptable for any government, particularly a government which has a stated claim to protecting human rights," the experts expressed in a statement.
The situation is growing tenser between the United States and Russia as concerns grow over Ukraine.
The United States and its western allies are accusing Moscow of planning a military invasion of its western neighbor, but the Kremlin has been denying these claims.
And the US calls for de-escalation between Ukraine and Russia, Washington has continued supplying Kyiv with arms and "lethal aids," a word adopted by the western media to whitewash the lethal weapons the United States and its western allies are delivering to Ukraine.
"Lethal aid" includes fighter jets, frigates, anti-tank missiles, munitions, anti-armor missiles, and various other weapons to be used against Russia.
Meanwhile, Russia insists that it has no intention of attacking any country, seeing the Western accusations as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment close to Russia's borders.