Moscow denounces US rights abuses in cold-war style
Tone and spirit of Russian foreign ministry's diatribe about human rights abuses in America revives memories of Soviet-era propaganda
Prisoners detained without charges. Prisons operating outside the legal system. Limits on free speech and the internet. Voters prevented from casting their ballots. Sanctioned kidnappings. Witch hunts and torture. It's all part of life, says the Russian government - in the United States.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a hefty 56-page report in Russian and English titled On the human rights situation in the United States.
The report, distributed at hearings held by the Foreign Relations Committee of the Russia's lower house of parliament, was the first such full examination of the US human rights record issued by Moscow since the fall of communism in 1991. In tone, vocabulary and spirit, it was reminiscent of the cold-war-era propaganda counterattacks launched by the Soviet Union on its rival.
The tone was set by committee chairman Alexei Pushkov, who said he and his colleagues did not agree "that human rights topics should remain the prerogative of states that call themselves traditional democracies."
"Around these violations an information vacuum has been created and ... as a result we see a distorted picture of all but an exclusive right of the United States to deal with that topic," Pushkov told the sparse audience of lawmakers, speakers, journalists and a group of political science students invited by the organisers.
"On a whole number of issues, I think Russia has a greater moral right to raise questions than our American partners as we don't have secret prisons, we do not kidnap people, we haven't had any serious scandals connected with violating international law."