24/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - Human Rights. On Monday 23 July, the president of the S&D group at the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, called on the European Union to strongly condemn the worsening human rights situation in Russia and take a clear position on the matter. According to the MEP, “it is not only the opposition organisations outside Parliament that are suffering. MPs from the Just Russia Party are also subject to enormous pressure”. He also denounced the fact that independent European bodies are subject to controls and restrictions and said that this was something they could not accept. Swoboda denounced the, “particularly serious and cynical” way in which members of the pop group “Pussy Riot” have been treated and the imprisonment they have suffered for a song that was hostile to the Russian president. The S&D president explained that, “extending their detention by a further six months clearly shows the brutality of the Russian legal system, which is increasingly obedient to politics rather than legal rules”. (CG/trans/fl)