The Council of Europe has firmly condemned the human rights situation in Russia. In a document of 120 pages, experts and parliamentarians of the Strasbourg-based organization draw attention to the “inadmissible” shortcomings and violations of fundamental rights that have emerged from hundreds of interviews conducted in Russia and in the countries of the Community of Independent States (CSI) in the period between July and December last year. Though the report recognizes “the changes made by the Russian Federation over the last 15 years”, the Council of Europe is still concerned by its human rights situation: especially the more than 2400 desaparecidos in Chechnya, the lack of protection of minorities linked to numerous acts of xenophobic violence (in particular “attacks on synagogues” and the “profanation of Moslem cemeteries”), the low degree of freedom of press “incompatible with a democratic system”, and the “poor material and sanitary conditions in which detainees live in many prisons that represent a fertile terrain for violations of human rights”. (http://www.coe.int/T/E/Commissioner_H.R/Communication_Unit/Documents/pdf.CommDH%282005%292_E.pdf)
