British delegation notes positive changes in Chechnya

Today, the group of British MPs - members of the Human Rights Group, making their acquaintance visit to Chechnya, met university students in Grozny and visited a gymnasia and a boarding school for children-orphans and children, left without parental care.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the delegation came to Chechnya on February 15, aiming to stay for two days there and get acquainted with the situation in the republic, including respect of human rights.

At the meeting with students Lord Judd, head of the delegation and former PACE Rapporteur on Chechnya, said: "I was in your university several years ago. Then, our talk took place in a poorly fit room, blown through by drafts. Today I see that you are trained in magnificent conditions, strikingly different from what was then."

According to his story, since his first visit to Chechnya in 2000, the life of the republic saw "so impressive changes that at times you forget about what happened here quite recently," as reported by the ITAR-TASS.

Let us remind you that in 1999-2003 Lord Frank Judd was the PACE Rapporteur on the situation in Chechnya, co-chair of the State Duma-PACE Working Group on Chechnya. Since 2000, he visited the region nine times as a member of PACE delegations, and repeatedly criticized Russia for breaking human rights in the course of counterterrorist operations.