"The country is obliged to help its citizens who are in trouble": Slutsky on the protection of the rights of Russians abroad

- Not so long ago in Latvia, our journalists, public figures who collaborated with Sputnik and with MIA Rossiya Segodnya, were accused of allegedly breaking some law.

How would you comment on this?

- Indeed, on December 3, our Russian journalists, colleagues from the Sputnik and Baltnews agencies were detained.

Unfortunately, anti-Russian tendencies in the same Latvia have intensified.

And the fact that the journalists were detained is absolutely monstrous and unacceptable.

Freedom of the media and freedom in the physical sense - what was violated during the detention of our colleagues, journalists - is a system of coordinates, this is the basis in which we exist both as politicians and as just citizens who understand how impermissible this is.

This is not just a red line, it is far beyond any red lines.

And the State Duma will accept an appeal to the European parliaments on the situation in Latvia, which grossly violates the rights of journalists (on December 23, the State Duma adopted this appeal. -

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).

- I know that you helped the families of our football fans, who were recently sentenced in France.

Many will say: “Why are you helping these people?

They themselves flooded! "

- Let's start with those who tell me so.

I will answer them very hard.

Because these people are at least strange.

Today, it seems to me that you cannot leave those who are in trouble of any plan.

And why are we helping them - today Russia is obliged to help its citizens who are in trouble outside their country.

Let's take a look at how the United States treats when an individual US citizen is detained, arrested, and harassed.

In these most difficult conditions, it is necessary to save him, help him out, and support him.

Unfortunately, we often behaved differently.

Meanwhile, cases of provocations against Russian citizens abroad are becoming more frequent.

As our, as I call them, strategic friends in the West try to deform, marginalize, demonize the image of Russia in the world, our people are offended.

Our people are being illegally detained.

Our people are being unlawfully condemned and thrown into prison.

Therefore, today our country has already concentrated enough forces to, being a great power, take it as a basis, take it as a rule, take it as a certain fundamental principle to help people who find themselves in trouble outside the country.

Pay for lawyers, monitor the situation, keep in touch with relatives, observe and make your own assessments and build your own scheme of actions, your roadmap for each case.

We are still far from the final system of assistance to our citizens who are in trouble outside the country.

But we are moving towards this.

We are moving towards this and will move on.

In the meantime, there is no system, we will help in our personal capacity.

And I hope that we will succeed, as it happened with you, it will happen in the near future, I hope, with Bogdana Osipova (Russian citizen, arrested in 2017 in the USA, in 2019 sentenced to three years under the article “International kidnapping child by one of the parents. ”-

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), which is now waiting, being not in prison, thank God, for a court hearing in New York.

As happened with many others.

In my personal capacity, and even more so as a politician, I consider myself obliged to help those who need help.

Moreover, those who are arrested, those who have been convicted without any legal basis.

And when such a situation occurs, everyone already knows - Slutsky helps.

They write - I get a lot of letters.

It is clear that I help not as the chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee, but primarily to lawyers who are building a legal position in the legal field of the country where the situation occurred.

- Do you help everyone?

- I try to help everyone.

Otherwise, what is the selection criterion?

I helped one, but I did not have the opportunity for the other.

If I didn't have enough, then I will get the support of my colleagues.

And, of course, we must not divide people into those who are worthy of help or not.

Here you can assess when a person returned: he is to blame, violated something, or is it a provocation.

Unfortunately, the analysis by lawyers shows that in the overwhelming majority of cases this is a provocation.

Therefore, all the more we cannot remain indifferent to this.

Well, the "Peace Fund" (our largest non-governmental organization, which I have the honor to lead since 2003) has now actively joined in helping those who are in a difficult situation far beyond our homeland.

I think that those who will see our program, there are a lot of people who are not indifferent among them, so I would just like to ask: join us, support our efforts.

It is not necessary to create any funds, to give money for lawyers, just support with your civil position that today Russia is indeed obliged to help, support any individual, individual citizen of our country who has found himself in difficult conditions outside of Russia.

It doesn't matter, I repeat who is to blame.

Someone, maybe, really stole something, someone really violated something, but we will figure it out and, if necessary, punish - and severely punish.

But first, we will support and will not allow people to find themselves in difficult situations outside the country without the slightest support from the country.

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- You have never found yourself in such a situation, in a prison abroad.

Why are you doing this?

- I help not because someday I might theoretically find myself, God forbid, in the same situation.

The fact is that I understand well what trouble is.

And I believe that we are the society when it is necessary to help our own people.

Indeed, when we support our own people who find themselves in a difficult situation, we will be a more consolidated society.

We will be more ready for mutual assistance.

Anyone who is in prison thousands of kilometers from home, he hopes for those who are spiritually close, for his country.

And he feels like a citizen of a truly great country.

I think, just like you, Maria, felt on the plane that was flying home.

Therefore, we must help, we must support.

Today is the time to reflect on how we treat our people abroad.

Russia should pay attention to a citizen not only when he is imprisoned and his freedom, his life is in danger.

Let's see how many compatriots we have in the world, how much we support them.

At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, 350 million people in the world spoke Russian.

Now - 270 million. An insignificant period of time on a historical scale - 30 years.

And minus 80 million people.

Not a single language, I dare to assure you, has disappeared from the face of the planet as quickly as Russian over the past century.

We do not open Russian schools, we do not support those of ours with educational programs who want to remain a part of the great Russian world and teach their children in Russian.

And let's see what they are doing in relation to their compatriots "Alliance Francaise" in France, the Goethe Institute in Germany.

They gathered almost all Germans around the world, dragged them back into Germany and gave them jobs, schools, universities, excellent living conditions.

- That is, if I understand correctly, it's time to go home?

- Unfortunately, in the early 2000s we had a state resettlement program and there were shameful cases (not isolated) when people came and then came back.

Because in Russia they were not given enough support, there was no school, there was no medical service.

Or it was qualitatively worse than where they came from.

They were simply afraid for themselves, for the children and returned.

It's a shame.

And today Russia is probably ready to accept those who want to return home - this is a counter process.

We must not only support those who are outside the country through cultural and humanitarian programs, but also return those who want to return to great Russia to decent conditions.

We must take care of such people and every family.

And this is also a very difficult task.

A number of federal departments should participate in its solution.

- Maybe this is a stereotype, but our people are reluctant to help other people with money, even when it comes to sick children, not to mention those who went to jail somewhere abroad.

We don't have a culture of giving?

- The culture of charity, patronage has always been and is.

And how many people do we have who are engaged in charity for cultural projects, and just people for the territory where, unfortunately, today's social policy is difficult and needs help.

After a while, without utopias, a state system of tracking, responding and supporting - in fact, it will be called something else - will be created for those who are in trouble outside the country.

- Do you remember your first time when you helped someone?

- As a child, probably yes.

Always helped.

Somehow I liked it.

I believe that a person who does not help is at least strange.

With him, not only you will not go to intelligence, in general you need to be afraid of such a person.

- Have you ever had an internal dilemma to help or not to help?

- No.

I was not afraid of losing anything when I helped.

Sometimes there are situations when you realize that if you help, you can lose something.

There are some things that we value: reputation, health, freedom, money.

But at least you definitely don't need to save money when it comes to helping those who are in trouble - it will come back to you, it will return a hundredfold.

We do not abandon ours.

We don't abandon ours.

Supporting people who are in trouble is difficult, ungrateful, but necessary.

And then, when we do not abandon one of those who are in trouble, then we will really be a great Russia.