The European Parliament adopted by 458 votes to 80,
with 89 abstentions, a resolution on Russia, notably the situation
of environmental activists and Ukrainian political
prisoners.
The text adopted in plenary had been tabled as a joint
resolution by the EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA and ECR
groups.
Firstly, it stated that the EU does not
recognise the enforcement of Russian legislation in Crimea and
Sevastopol and expects all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens in
the Crimean peninsula and in Russia to be released
immediately.
The Russian authorities and political
leadership continue their repressive and authoritarian regime
against their own citizens, civil society, political opposition and
media workers. Russia’s slide into authoritarian rule has had
a negative impact on EU-Russia relations and on stability in Europe
and the world.
Many of the prisoners and detainees have faced
harsh and inhumane conditions in prisons, causing physical and
psychological risks to their health.
Against this background, Parliament called on
the Russian authorities to:
- release without further delay and unconditionally all
illegally and arbitrarily detained Ukrainian citizens, both in
Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of
Ukraine;
- ensure full cooperation with UN Special Procedures,
including by extending invitations to visit the country to the
Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, the Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and the
Special Representative on the rights to freedom of peaceful
assembly and of association, so that they may report on the
situation of environmental and human rights defenders;
- accept the European Union proposal to consider
introducing permanent monitoring of the trials of victims of
political persecution in the Russian Federation and occupied
Crimea;
- recognise the crucial role of environmental defenders
in protecting the environment and in ensuring respect for
environmental rights and to publicly condemn all attacks,
intimidation, harassment and criminalisation of environmental
defenders;
- stop curtailing the peaceful and legitimate activities
of environmental organisations by fabricating criminal cases
against local environmental activists, arresting participants in
peaceful local protests and imposing disproportionately heavy fines
on them;
- take the appropriate legal steps and use all available
legal tools to prevent and put a stop to the attacks against
environmental activists;
- ensure effective investigation and accountability in
the case of Andrey Rudomakha and other cases of attacks against
environmental defenders;
- ensure full respect for the rights of all detained
persons, to ensure that all prisoners receive proper medical
attention and treatment, and to respect medical ethics, including
no imposition of unwanted treatment or force-feeding in the case of
hunger strikes that may amount to torture and other
ill-treatment.