Among other conclusions, the report said that the Russian Federation has a weak multi-party political system and a poor human rights record, specifically in the continuing internal conflict in and around Chechnya.
In addition, it said prison conditions are severe and often life threatening, that law enforcement suffers from rampant corruption, arbitrary arrests and detention, that media freedom is on the decline, and that non-governmental organizations are systematically harassed
Mikhail Kamynin said the report's section regarding Russia is "biased, politicized and confrontational in many aspects."
"The politicization of human rights problems leads not to the resolution of existing problems, but to the devaluation of principles and goals of international cooperation in this sphere," he said.
Kamynin said the U.S. State Department repeatedly issues politicized assessments of human rights practices in Russia in its reports every year, and does not take into account Russia's position despite many attempts to clarify it at different levels.
He said the U.S. uses double standards when assessing human rights depending on a particular country's compliance with its political interests.
"These standards emerge when the United States, under different pretexts, restricts democratic freedoms, interferes in the private life of its citizens, censors media and sends minors to the electric chair," Kamynin said.
He said the U.S. has not joined a number of important human rights agreements, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Members of the Russian Public Chamber Wednesday described the report as biased, provocative and ideologically motivated.
Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said: "We are not saying that Russia has a spotless human rights record. We are working on it. But that does not mean that these isolated ['individual'] problems should be blown out of proportion and used in a massive ideological attack against Russia."
The report also pointed to some positive developments with regard to human rights.
It said reforms initiated in previous years continued to produce improvements in the criminal justice system, in particular that authorities have increasingly sought to combat instances of racial and ethnic mistreatment through prosecutions of groups and individuals accused of engaging in hate crimes.
