Dissident confronts Putin's justice minister
in UN review of Russian rights record
GENEVA, September 21, 2018 — Russian justice minister Alexander Konovalov was confronted in a UN debate today by one of his country's most prominent dissidents.
Pro-democracy activist, author and film-maker Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was twice poisoned and nearly killed in Moscow,
refuted the Kremlin's assertions as he took the floor at the invitation of the Swiss-based human rights group UN Watch.
Konovalov presented his country's record before a quadrennial mandatory review of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council,
saying that the Putin government "was committed to protect civil society actors."
However, Kara-Murza told the UN meeting, in Russia unwelcome NGOs are designated as “foreign agents,” the right to free
elections "has become a sham," and peaceful demonstrators "are detained and beaten up — not only with police batons, but
also with Cossack whips." Russia's law enforcement system, he said, "has turned into an instrument of repression."