Russian Duma to denounce ECHR over war crimes ruling.

MOSCOW, May 21 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian State Duma plans to denounce
on Friday the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) for backing Latvia's
decision to charge a Russian World War Two guerrilla with war crimes.
The Strasburg-based court ruled on Monday that Latvia had not broken
international law by charging Vasily Kononov, 88, with war crimes over
attacks in Nazi-occupied Latvia in 1944. The ruling by the court's Grand
Chamber overturned an earlier judgment by the regular court in 2008 that
Latvia's decision to try Kononov in 2004 on war crimes charges was illegal.
The draft Duma resolution qualified the Grand Chamber ruling as "a
dangerous judicial precedent and a change in legal approaches to the
assessment of World War Two and an attempt to initiate a revision of the
decisions of the Nuremberg tribunal."
"The position voiced in the ruling of the Grand Chamber supports the
activities of Latvian authorities that carry out a policy of revanchism
and chauvinism and encourages state leaders who call to revise the
principles and decisions of the Nuremberg tribunal," it said.
The draft says the ECHR ruling is "purely political and is not based
on generally recognized principles and norms of international law."
Earlier the Russian Foreign Ministry said "the Grand Chamber of the
court has practically agreed with those who try to reassess the results of
the Second World War and to whitewash the Nazis and their accomplices."
"The decision of the members of the Court in the case of Mr. Kononov
seriously damages the credibility of the Council of Europe in general and
may be viewed as an attempt to draw new dividing lines in Europe," the
ministry said.
First deputy chairman of the Duma committee for international affairs
Leonid Slutsky recalled that "the Strasburg court appeared as a reaction
to Nazi crimes and should consider any collaboration and support of Nazism
as a crime."
"Therefore, the verdict in the Kononov case is not only outrageous for
Europe itself that suffered from Hitler's yoke not less than the Soviet
people, but it can also create a negative trend to justify the crimes of
Nazi Germany. It creates preconditions for a revision of the decisions of
the Nuremberg tribunal and opens a possibility for revanchism in history."
Chairman of the Duma committee for international affairs Konstantin
Kosachev warned in his Internet blog ECHR ruling was a "disgrace for
Europe that can result in a catastrophe for our relations with the
Strasburg court."
Kononov, who was granted Russian citizenship in 2000, was convicted in
April 2004 of murdering Latvian civilians during the war and was sentenced
to a year and eight months in jail. Kononov said the victims were all Nazi
collaborators who had handed 12 guerrillas, including women and a child,
to the Nazis. He argued his actions did not amount to a crime at the time.
His case outraged many in Russia, where he is seen as a brave
guerrilla fighting the Nazis that devastated the Soviet Union.

.Russian seafarers urge to mount fight against piracy.

VLADIVOSTOK, May 21 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian seafarers began collecting
signatures on Friday under a petition calling on the world governments to
mount the fight against Somali pirates.
The action was organized in the Russian port of Nakhodka by the
International Transport Workers' Federation, various maritime trade unions
and shipping lines and organizers said they plan to collect half a million
signatures by the World Day of the Sea on September 23.
Trade unions recall that 90 percent of global trade goes by sea and
states have to protect seamen from pirates and restore control over the
Indian Ocean.
Chairman of the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Seafarers Trade
Union Nikolai Sukhanov said world governments shall appropriate funds to
resolve the aggravating piracy situation, take urgent measures to free
abducted seafarers, and work to ensure stable and peaceful life in Somalia.
In the first quarter of the year Somali pirates seized eleven vessels
and took 194 seafarers hostage. Twelve of them were wounded.
-0-nec


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