This press release comes from the website of the Greens of the European Free Alliance on the European Parliament:
The murder of Andrei Kulagin, activist for human rights organisation Spravedlivost (Justice), has been announced by authorities more than two months after his disappearance and almost two weeks after his body was found. Rebecca Harms, President of the Greens/EFA Group in the European parliament and Finnish Green MEP Heidi Hautala, the EP’s newly appointed EP human rights subcommittee chair, commented:
“Greens are shocked and saddened by the death of Andrei Kulagin and we extend our condolences to all who were close to him.
“This murder exposes the extent of the dangers faced by people whostand up for human rights in Russia. It is unacceptable that bravepeople who defend the basic rights of others can be so vulnerable tocowardly acts to silence them. Murderers must no longer be allowed toact with impunity. We call on the Russian authorities to do everythingin their considerable power to bring the responsible people to justice.
“The European Union must now put the critical human rights situationin Russia at the very top of its agenda, now and at the EU-Russiasummit this autumn. The Swedish Presidency, European Commission andEuropean Parliament (1) must unreservedly condemn the recent murdersand send an unequivocal message to the Russian authorities that thevulnerable situation of human rights defenders will not be tolerated.”
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I wonder did Tatjana Ždanoka, pro-Russian member of the Greens/EFA Group, also sign the condemnation?
The condemnation was a press-release, not a statement that needs to be signed (unanimously?) by all Green/EPA members. The text in the Green/EPA website only mentions three people by name, Rebecca Harms, Heidi Hautala, and Daniel Cohn-Bendit. So Ždanoka probably didn’t have to express her opinion on the topic.Since this does concern her own support-human-rights stance, I think she’ll have to express her opinion — say, in the debate that Cohn-Bendit and Harms want to raise in the next EP congress. She might conceivably keep silent, but it would be quite strange given her support-human-rights stance — I am curious about what she’ll do.