Lavrov Discussed Water Blockade of Crimea With Council of Europe Secretary General

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th October, 2020) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday that he had discussed with Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric the water blockade of Crimea and the discrimination of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine and the Baltic countries.

"We had a frank conversation with the secretary general. Unfortunately, in the past few years we have been witnessing attempts to promote double standards and sometimes even political point-scoring at the Strasbourg platform. We discussed the continuing mass human rights violations. Millions of people suffer from their rights violations on the Council of Europe territory, I mean overt discrimination of Russians and Russian-speaking people living in Ukraine and the Baltic nations.

We stressed that the situation around the water blockade of Crimea is unacceptable, in violation of all European and universal conventions, and also in violation of the 2016 recommendation by a special representative of the Council of Europe secretary general, Gerard Studman, .... issued after his visit to Crimea. Among other things, he recommended that reaction be provided urgently to the problem of water supply in Crimea," Lavrov said at a press conference.