Russia intends to refer the case to the International Court of Justice over the systematic violation of the rights of ethnic Russians in the Baltic states, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced to “Izvestia“.
The decision was provoked by the fact that "the Baltic governments ignore Moscow's calls for dialogue and continue to pursue policies that violate international norms". According to the Russian Foreign Ministry article, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are experiencing a “sharp surge in state-sponsored Russophobia“.
“In this regard, we will obviously have to direct our complaints to the judicial arena, by appealing to the main judicial body of the UN - the International Court of Justice“, the ministry said.
Russia's main complaints concern linguistic discrimination, distortion of history and persecution of dissenters. As an example, they cite the case of human rights activist Alexander Gaponenko, who was sentenced in Latvia to ten years in prison on charges brought after participating in a conference of the Russian Institute of the CIS countries.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russia intends to raise the issue of Gaponenko's imprisonment at the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, scheduled for June-July.
The ministry noted that they had already tried to draw attention to the issue through the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the OSCE, but had not been able to receive a meaningful response.
The ministry has repeatedly accused the leadership of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia of Russophobia, and its spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the US and the EU of encouraging the "anti-Russian campaign of the Baltic states."