While apartheid may be officially over, modern forms of racial bias targeting Russians in parts of Europe persist, a Russian UN diplomat has said
Moscow has urged African nations to support its efforts to combat discrimination against Russians, comparing the current state of affairs to the injustices endured by people in Africa during the colonial era.
Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Maria Zabolotskaya, made the appeal in an address at a forum marking the 60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) on Monday. The session was organized by the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.
According to the speech, which was published on the website of the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN, the diplomat hailed the ICERD but criticized the failure to fully implement its principles decades after its adoption.
“Although apartheid regimes are a thing of the past, discrimination, as we know, has not disappeared,” Zabolotskaya stated, warning of a “revival of discrimination in open forms” in the 21st century.
She accused several European and Baltic states of adopting discriminatory policies targeting Russian-speaking populations, including denying voting rights and civil service eligibility to ethnic Russians labeled as “non-citizens.”
“The policy of eradicating everything Russian, especially the Russian language, is being carried out in these countries and is being carried out in Ukraine. All this is happening with the complete indifference of the UN with all its human rights mechanisms,” the representative stated.
“Russians have always helped Africans fight colonialism and discrimination, and we count on the support of Africans in the fight against discrimination against Russians,” she added.
She said Moscow is prepared to support all measures to counter the injustice, which also “often deprives people of African descent of the opportunity for full and effective development.”
Several African nations have acknowledged Russia’s assistance during their struggles for independence from colonial rule and have also expressed support for Moscow’s efforts to counter Western hegemony. Last year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said his country’s independence from Britain in 1980 would not have succeeded without the help and solidarity of Russia and China.
