Geneva, March 26 (IANS/ITAR-TASS) Russian foreign ministry’s representative at the 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council Tuesday criticised the European Union and the US for being short-sighted in their approach to the presence of ultra-nationalists in Ukraine’s executive power bodies.

“This approach is hard to explain,” said Roman Kashayev, who is leading the Russian delegation at the session.

“We are concerned with an obvious deficit of attention shown by the United States and the European Union to the presence of ultra-nationalist forces in the executive power bodies in Ukraine,” the Russian diplomat said.

“Their short-sightedness is hard to explain and is apparently linked to their ongoing enthrallment in geopolitical games,” Kashayev added.

Russia has been warning its partners in Europe and the US of the dangers behind the spread of ultra-right ideology and political movements, including neo-Nazis.

Kashayev said that a rise of neo-Nazism in Europe “was growing into extreme right terror. Regrettably, the European community and Europe’s political leaders seem to be unaware of how dangerous this phenomenon is”.

“Ukraine is a clear example of what the appeasement to such ideas and actions carried out for the sake of freedom of speech can lead to,” Kashayev said, noting that ultra-nationalist radicals had risen to power in Kiev as a result of an “unconstitutional state coup”.

He called on Europeans to stop cooperation with Ukraine’s “Svoboda” (Freedom) nationalist party, which the European Parliament accused of racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia in 2012.

“Representatives of these parties are holding a number of key posts in Kiev, including the posts of vice-premier, the defence minister and chief prosecutor,” Kashayev said.

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