RUSSIA. HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRESS SLAMMED BY COUNCIL OF EUROPE

issuing a damning report on human rights and democracy in Russia, Europe's rights watchdog voted to pursue its monitoring of the country's rights situation.
"There has been very little progress," Britain's David Atkinson and Germany's Rudolf Bindig of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe said in their report.
The two assembly members had been monitoring the progress of human rights in Russia for the past nine years. Areas of concern included the lack of movement over "the formal abolition of the death penalty, the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and the obligation to bring to justice those found responsible for human rights violations, notably in relation to events in Chechnya," the report said.