madam president russia is europe's largest and closest neighbour and because of our trade relations also one of the most important
what happens in russia is very important to europe for these reasons
also what happens in russia has a very big influence on europe
for these reasons as well as the human rights violations which it contains this is a very important resolution
i would like to highlight the fact that i met with gary kasparov while he was a candidate for the presidency of russia in this parliament here in strasbourg
he came as an honoured guest when he was a candidate
kasparov made it clear to us even then that the kremlin's attitude towards political activity meant that they treated him as a subversive and a criminal many of the things we are talking about today liable to manhandling and always under threat of arrest and the arrest of his supporters
sometimes this sort of activity even goes beyond russian borders and even into the eu
on a recent trip by the petitions committee to bulgaria we were told by the bulgarian orthodox church which is suffering severe persecution in bulgaria of the influence of russia in their situation
we must put aside considerations of our fear about energy security that soften our approach to russia and make us tiptoe in their presence and speak to russia strongly and clearly reminding them that they are members of the council of europe and signatories to the european convention on human rights and the strasbourg accord and we must insist that they respect democracy and human rights in russia and beyond
