President of Russia Vladimir Putin: You have recently assumed your duties as Human Rights Commissioner of Russia. I see that you have already fully immersed yourself in the work. What are your first impressions?
Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova: Mr President, first of all, I would like to thank you for the great trust you have placed in me. For me, this is, of course, an advance of confidence, and I will do everything in my power to justify it.
Naturally, I still have much to learn, but some work has already been accomplished. In fact, my entire life and professional career have been devoted to human rights protection. I won't say much, but I'll mention a few figures.
In St Petersburg, I encountered a case of injustice when fraudsters attempted to deprive orphans of their apartments. We managed to stop them and return 37 apartments to the children.
Next, my team and I established the Union of Volunteers of Russia, a nationwide youth volunteer organisation. When the events of 2014 began, Dr Lisa – Yelizaveta Glinka – and I organised the evacuation of children from the conflict zone. We succeeded in evacuating 2,700 mothers and children, as well as 128 sick and wounded children, to Russia, where they received assistance, medical treatment, and rehabilitation.
Supporting participants in the special military operation has always been – and will remain – my absolute priority. I have travelled to Donbass, to our historical liberated territories numerous times. Last year, when I was still serving as a State Duma deputy, I visited 46 regions of the country, travelling to remote towns and villages to meet with people. Many of those who came to see me were family members of participants in the special military operation. At times, I would spend up to eight hours speaking with them, and it was through these direct conversations that the legislative process began. Based on this work, I submitted 102 legislative initiatives related to the special military operation, many of which have since become federal laws.
Since assuming the office of Human Rights Commissioner on May 14, our office has received 14,752 appeals, 52 percent of which concern issues related to the special military operation. Behind every one of these figures lies more than just statistics, but a real human story.
The most important issue I would like to highlight is the exchange of prisoners of war. As shown on the next slide, when I took up this position, I was able to establish communication with my Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Lubinets, and we reached an agreement on the key issues. In addition to prisoner exchanges, which over the past month alone have enabled 550 of our servicemen to return home, the most significant achievement of our humanitarian efforts has been the reunification of civilian families. This was achieved through close cooperation with the Defence Ministry, the relevant security agencies, the Federal Penitentiary Service and our colleagues in the Republic of Belarus. As the next slide shows, we were also able to persuade the Ukrainian side to return all residents of the Kursk Region who had been unlawfully held in Ukraine. They are all back home now. One of them, a young man whose birthday coincided with his return, told me: “This is my second birthday.”
I also cannot fail to mention the tragedy in Starobelsk. What happened there can only be described as a war crime. I travelled to the site immediately after the incident. I would like to thank the Foreign Ministry and the Defence Ministry for arranging a visit by 50 journalists from countries around the world. Together we went through every room of that college. I had been there several times before and had taken part in a patriotic event with those children just six months earlier. The journalists saw no military base there. What they saw were bloodstained blankets, personal photos and children’s toys. We spoke with the children. Afterwards, I met with the parents of those who had been killed, visited the injured children in hospital, and upon returning to Moscow, I also visited them there, thanks to the Ministry of Health. I remain in regular contact with them.
I also wrote to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Council and the OSCE. The High Commissioner has replied to my letter.
We continue, of course, to provide humanitarian assistance on a regular basis.
As for our international activities, we have succeeded in establishing strong international contacts. I travelled to Bishkek for a meeting of ombudsmen from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states, where I held six bilateral meetings, primarily with colleagues from the CIS countries. Upon my return, we also signed a cooperation agreement with Lebanon.
On June 17, I chaired a major nationwide meeting of our Coordinating Council, attended by representatives from all 89 Russian regions. We have an exceptionally strong team of regional human rights commissioners, who are closest to the everyday concerns of our citizens. Chairperson of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova also took part in the meeting and expressed her strong support. We signed a memorandum of cooperation and agreed to work together to protect citizens’ voting rights, with particular attention to people with limited mobility, including home voting and voting in remote areas.
Overall, I intend to place particular emphasis in my next annual report on the work being done in the regions, to present the full scope of our human rights protection system. There is much more I could say, Mr President, but these are the main points.
Vladimir Putin: Good. Thank you very much.
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