<div dir="ltr"><h1>Moscow signals concern for Russians in Estonia</h1>
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<p class="">By <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/search/journalist.php?edition=us&n=robert.evans&">Robert Evans</a></p>
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<span class="">GENEVA</span> <span class=""> </span>
<span class="">Wed Mar 19, 2014 1:03pm EDT</span>
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<span id="midArticle_0"></span><span class=""><p> (Reuters) - <span class=""><a class="" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/russia?lc=int_mb_1001">Russia</a></span>
signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia's treatment of its large
ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state
with what it said was a call in <span class=""><a class="" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/ukraine?lc=int_mb_1001">Ukraine</a></span> to prevent the use of Russian.</p>
</span><span id="midArticle_1"></span><p><span class=""><a class="" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/russia?lc=int_mb_1001">Russia</a></span>
has defended its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula by arguing it
has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the
reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes
at a highly sensitive moment.</p><span id="midArticle_2"></span><p>Russia fully supported the protection of the rights of linguistic minorities, a Moscow diplomat told the <span class=""><a class="" href="http://www.reuters.com/subjects/united-nations?lc=int_mb_1001">United Nations</a></span> Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to a summary of the session issued by the U.N.'s information department.</p>
<span id="midArticle_3"></span><p>"Language
should not be used to segregate and isolate groups," the diplomat was
reported as saying. Russia was "concerned by steps taken in this regard
in Estonia as well as in <span class=""><a class="" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/ukraine?lc=int_mb_1001">Ukraine</a></span>," the Moscow envoy was said to have added.</p><span id="midArticle_4"></span><p>The
text of the Russian remarks, echoing long-standing complaints over
Estonia's insistence that the large Russian minority in the east of the
country should be able to speak Estonian, was not immediately available.</p><span id="midArticle_5"></span><p>But
amid the growing Crimea crisis, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - which
like Ukraine were all parts of the old Soviet Union - have expressed
growing apprehension over Moscow's intentions.</p><span id="midArticle_6"></span><p>U.S.
Vice President Joe Biden is currently in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius
as part of a trip to reassure the three countries, all European Union
and NATO members, of Washington's support.</p><span id="midArticle_7"></span><p>Ukraine
told the rights council that U.N. experts had found no credible
evidence of mistreatment of its Russian minority as alleged by Moscow --
one of whose pro-Kremlin newspapers said this week there was "bloodshed
almost like in Syria" in the east of the country.</p><span id="midArticle_8"></span><p>The
new government in Kiev, a Ukrainian envoy declared, was reinvigorating
its promotion and protection of the rights of minorities "to the highest
international standards".</p><span id="midArticle_9"></span><p>The
envoy asked what measures could be taken to protect Ukrainian, Crimean
Tatar and other minority groups in Crimea "whose rights are being
violated under the Russian occupation."</p><span id="midArticle_10"></span><p>Responding,
the Russian delegate said there were no violations of minority rights
in Crimea and minorities were not being persecuted. The new
Russian-backed government there had guaranteed protection of the Tatars.</p><p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-russia-estonia-idUSBREA2I1J620140319">http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-russia-estonia-idUSBREA2I1J620140319</a><br>
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