A recent UN report revealing human rights concerns has been turned into a form of propaganda in the mainstream media. The incomplete view of this report casts shadows on Al Jazeera and other news outlets

A report published by the United Nations Human Rights Committee on Thursday brings to the forefront again allegations that there is rampant racism inside Russia. According to the document, the UN is concerned about alleged attacks on “non-Slav” people, especially migrant workers from Central Asia, the Caucasus and Africa, as well as Roma people. Within the media reports on the UN concerns, we find telltale signs of US foreign policy coercion and even linkages to the notorious billionaire George Soros.

(Special Note: A part of the other side of Russia's diversity story is presented within this report via imagery of Vladmir Putin addressing various ethnic and spiritual groups. In any real news reporting on this subject, it is a journalist's duty to ensure both sides are told. But the reality is that in Russia under Putin, contrary to the chosen Al Jazeera message, human rights have progressed, not diminished.)

Putin presents the President of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan Mufti Ildus Faizov awarded the Order of Friendship.

The UN Human Rights Committee reported on Thursday that ultra nationalist attacks by racist groups and neo-Nazis have occurred, but the committee’s biggest concerns stem from anti-migrant attitudes by what they term “high level public officials” in the state media. At least this is what an Al Jazeera news piece proclaims. This report sounds the familiar LGBT alarm too, as Human Rights Watch’s Tanya Cooper, a researcher in Moscow, is cited by an Al Jazeera reporter. Cooper pointed the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration, calling his reign “the worst for human rights in the country’s post-Soviet history.” What's most damaging about such reports is that they are picked up by Yahoo News and other media as fact. Before I address the reporting, let me emphasize something about Russia.

For readers unfamiliar with Russia’s ethnicities and socioeconomic background, the largest country on Earth is a multi-national state with over 185 ethnic groups. The sizes of these populations vary enormously, ranging from the millions in the case of Russians and Tatars to under 10,000 in the cases of Samis and Kets. In short, Russia has been historically, for centuries, the most diverse society on Earth. Recent flare-ups of ethnic hostilities have been well documented, but every country on Earth has its extremist populations. Beyond Russia’s, or any country’s societal problems, there’s a very alarming symbiosis of the official intertwined with the divisive in this article. Even the title is misleading, as in the long and detailed document the term “non-Slavic” occurs only once, where Cossack patrols are mentioned. The Al Jazeera piece suggests that there’s some Slavic master race emergent in the world’s most ethnically diverse nation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin with Huresh wrestlers before the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Tuva’s accession to Russia.

Most noticably, the UN report (here in English) outlines the concerns and recommended solutions reported by Al Jazeera and other media outlets. However, the association of the NGO Human Rights Watch and their researchers is not characterized. The news reporting from Moscow today is confusing in the extreme as official UN documents seem to be validated by representatives of an organization funded by the George Soros Open Society Foundation. What we see in this latest report is a “melding” of an official international body’s credibility, with that of an independent organization criticized for carrying out US State Department policy. The only connective tissue in between the UN and Human Rights Watch on this issue is a complaint (one of dozens) filed by the latter.

I tried to contact Tamila Varshalomidze, the Al Jazeera author who reported on the UN report to ask why Tanya Cooper was sourced on an official document release. I have not been able to reach her, but it is significant for those who understand the region that Varshalomidze is Georgian, a reporter who’s been hyper focused on the Ukraine-Russia divide, as well as Caucasus, Moldova, and in general all regional anti-Russia subjects the last year and a half.

Looking at the author’s most recent tweets is telling for anyone expert in social media. Here are the last two in the order most recent to earlier.

UN calls on Russia to combat all acts of racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. http://t.co/x1y81ToSLk by @tamila87v — AJE News (@AJENews) April 2, 2015

George Soros is ready to invest $1 billion in #Ukraine, if Western countries help private investment there. http://t.co/Fv1HZxUaQj — Tamila Varshalomidze (@tamila87v) March 30, 2015

The predilections of any author or activist are usually seen quickly in social media shares, etc. However vehement tweets or even editorial writing might be, though, it’s the news people consume that is effective. And right here is where I take umbrage at reports such as the one in question. Al Jazeera is listed as the “source” and “Human Rights” is the news topic. This is not an opinion piece, but is instead presented as news, or as fact. While the author does not out and out tell any lies, the piece is completely suspect for not having presented any alternative view or all the facts. The UN report cited is many pages long. It contains not only the UN’s negative findings, but also the positive ones along with dialogue from Russian Federation and other independent parties. Ms. Varshalomidze “cherry picked” what she wanted to reflect, and Al Jazeera has given her tacit permission by featuring the piece as news.

President Putin in the remote Ivolga Datsan in Buryatia with monks there.

Here is the webpage of the UN where this report and other similar ones reside. You can check for yourself, to find out if my contentions are correct. The reader may also want to take note, the UN has completed reports on Austria, Benin, Cambodia, Côte d'Ivoire , Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Iraq, Monaco, the Rupublic of Korea, Suriname, among the many other nations.

To sum up here, if I wanted to create a headline that painted Austria, for instance, as a haven for LGBT hatred or discrimination, singling out a report by the UN, say the proposal for the list of issues submitted by Homosexual Initiative (HOSI) Vienna, could easily be my tinder for a fire of anti-Austria propaganda. To quote from the UN report:

It is obvious that the current legislation does not treat “all persons” as equal before the law as they are not entitled “to the equal protection of the law”, and that the law does not prohibit any discrimination and does not guarantee to all persons equal protection against discrimination.

Perhaps the focus of any negative Austria PR campaign could be religious freedoms? Well, the UN has addressed just these kinds of issues where that country has created “anti-Islam” bureaus, if I wish to call the Federal Office of Sect Issues such. I quote from the FOREF Europe report recently, section Anti-Cult Efforts of the Austrian Federal Office of Sect Issues1 (Bundesstelle für Sektenfragen):

The Austrian government’s campaigns against so-called “sects” and “cults,” especially through the establishment and actions of a “federal office of sect issues,” (BSS) have demonized religious minorities and placed the state in opposition to these groups, while cooperating with more established religions.

President Putin at a meeting with students and faculty at the North-Eastern Federal Universit

Our job here at Russia Insider is to reveal the truthful stories from Russia and the regions surrounding it for an audience that is otherwise misinformed. A secondary mission is to call out mainstream media about harmful misinterpretations, misleading news that results in misguided policy. Of course we are in an embryonic stage right now. The preponderance of our news and editorial being focused on Ukraine and a new Cold War effect the world is witnessing. In the weeks to come, however, substantive work will be done to tell all. Al Jazeera, in this case, has become part of the problem with media, rather than the solution the publishers once aimed at being. To be fair to Al Jazeera, a hundred media outlets reported similarly on the UN proclamation on human rights in Russia. Here it seems appropriate though, to shed light on my own country's most recent UN assessment. This is a quote from the UN's International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination from September 2014 of United States racial issues:

While welcoming the acknowledgement by the State party that racial or ethnic profiling is not effective law enforcement practice and is inconsistent with its commitment to fairness in the justice system, the Committee remains concerned at the practice of racial profiling of racial or ethnic minorities by law enforcement officials, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Transportation Security Administration, border enforcement officials and local police.

Putin in a meeting Meeting with muftis from Russia’s Muslim spiritual administrations.

I’ve some experience with this, my partner having contributed there in the past. It seems apparent to me, something has shifted. I intend to find out what if possible. In the meantime I urge readers to become better informed, and to delve deeper into the news you read or see anywhere. The UN also reported on positive aspects of Russia’s human rights issues in this same report, in case you wondered. This is true in all cases where the United Nations has made observations and recommendations to the various nations.

It’s high time we reflect the true picture of human rights in the world, without a bias toward presidents, billionaires, sects, or ideals.