MOSCOW, October 29 - RAPSI. Russian Foreign Ministry may shortly be publishing a new report on human rights abroad in a move that should not be construed as a return to the Cold War, Russia's Foreign Ministry Envoy for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law Konstantin Dolgov said in an interview with newspaper Kommersant on Monday.

During a special meeting last week, the State Duma discussed an initial report on human rights in the United States drafted by the Foreign Ministry. One section reads that a large number of US citizens are deprived of the right to vote because they hold a criminal record. Furthermore, the presidential election system in the United States results in inequality as the votes of residents of some states have greater weight than those of others.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has also criticized the US authorities because under US law, the country's special security services are allowed to interfere with the private lives of Americans and foreigners without the court's permission. The report claims that the level of freedom in the United States has severely decreased.

Dolgov did not specify which country the new report will focus on.

He said that his authorities include the monitoring of human rights across the world and stressed that there is not a single country which can be called a paragon of democracy.