Madam, - There is a satisfying aptness to the letter from the ambassador of the Russian Federation, regarding "human rights in Russia", originating from Orwell Road (May 10th). For truly, when one considers official remarks on this matter, one passes into the territory of Orwellian evasion and untruth.
Under President Putin, human rights in Russia have undergone massive regression: in 2005 Freedom House, which tracks civil liberties around the world, listed the country as officially "unfree" for the first time since the collapse of communism.
Press freedom has all but been extinguished, and electoral rights have been severely restricted. Minorities have been subject to official targeting. Corruption and brutality are the hallmark of the security and police apparatus.
Political enemies are murdered in mysterious circumstances, or are broken and dispatched to prison. Power has been ruthlessly centralised, and is now wielded by a select group of former KGB operatives, headed by President Putin himself.
What of Russia's interventions abroad? Hostility to democratic revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine has been coupled with official scorn for European concerns about freedom in Russia itself. Intransigence over Kosovar independence has been matched with bullying of independent Baltic states.
Furthermore, Russia has secretly continued arming the genocidal regime in Sudan, in violation of UN sanctions. All this without noting the dark zone of hell that has been made of Chechnya.
This may not be "to everyone's taste", as Ambassador Timoshkin recognises. But lies are not made truth by virtue of the high place where they are issued. Human rights in Russia are not respected - indeed, they have been actively disregarded. Until this trend is reversed, Mr Timoshkin may have to suffer through many more "lectures from abroad on how to develop democracy in Russia". They may be grating, but in light of the above, they are entirely necessary. - Yours, etc,
SEAN COLEMAN, Lindisfarne Lawn, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.