RUSSIAN, OSCE OFFICIALS DISCUSS STATUS OF ETHNIC RUSSIANS IN TURKMENISTAN

MOSCOW, MARCH 10 (RIA NOVOSTI) - Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov of Russia and OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Rolf Ekeus have shared perspectives and opinions on the status of ethnic Russians in Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, reports the Russian Foreign Ministry's press department.

Messrs. Fedotov and Ekeus examined this issue at their talks in Moscow Wednesday, relying upon the resolution on Turkmenistan's human rights record that had been adopted at the 58th session of the UN General Assembly. The main item on their agenda, however, was the status of ethnic Russians in Latvia and Estonia. Discriminatory policies vis-a-vis the Russian minority by the governments of those two Baltic countries is the object of serious concern not just for Russia, but also for the UN Commission for Human Rights, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The Fedotov-Ekeus meeting came ahead of the 60th session of UN Commission for Human Rights, to open in Geneva next week.