Outcome of Visit of Rolf Ekeus, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, to Russia

Unofficial translation from Russian

PRESS RELEASE

On May 16-18, Rolf Ekeus, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, stayed on a working visit to Moscow, in the course of which he had meetings with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, Deputy Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation M. N. Ponomarev, and in the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, with Chairman of the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee M. V. Margelov, Chairmen of State Duma Committees V. I. Grishin (federal affairs and regional policy) and E. N. Trofimov (nationalities) and the head of the Rodina faction in the State Duma, D. O. Rogozin.

The Commissioner also visited the Foreign Ministry Roszarubezhtsentr.

The central theme of the conversation of the head of the Russian foreign affairs agency with the Commissioner, held on May 18, was the situation related to the safeguarding of the rights of the Russian-speaking population in Latvia and Estonia, as well as in some CIS states, in particular in Ukraine and Georgia, on the basis of international standards and in accordance with the recommendations of European institutions.

The sides also exchanged their assessments of the situation in the field of interethnic relations in the OSCE space as a whole and discussed specific questions of further mutual engagement.

May 18, 2005