MOSCOW DEFLECTS CRITICISM ON HUMAN RIGHTS.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman took issue on February 3 with the U.S. State Department’s recent report criticizing Russia for its human rights record. (See Monitor, January 31) Mikhail Demurin complained that the document had not given weighty enough consideration to Russia’s presidential elections, the termination of hostilities in Chechnya, and the negotiated peace that followed it. (Interfax, February 3)

Voice of Russia Silenced.