Criticized, Putin Says Europe Has Rights Abuses of Its Own

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin responded Friday to a European official’s criticism of what appeared to be several contract killings here by saying rights abuses occurred in Western Europe, too, citing the ill treatment of migrant workers.

With that, Mr. Putin told the official, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, that the “hockey puck” was back in Europe’s zone on the issue of human rights abuses.

Even as Russia and Europe work toward better understandings on trade and energy, European Union officials say lapses in the rule of law and democratic norms remain major stumbling blocks to improving relations.

At a joint news conference with Mr. Putin late on Friday, Mr. Barroso said he had raised the issue of contract murders during a meeting that day with the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev. At that point, Mr. Putin interjected his comments about Europe’s human rights problems.

Two recent deaths have drawn wide attention. Stanislav Y. Markelov, 34, a human rights lawyer, and Anastasia Baburova, 25, a reporter, were shot dead by a man with a silencer-equipped pistol on a busy Moscow street last month. The gunman escaped.

Ms. Baburova, a freelance journalist for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was its fourth reporter to be killed in a contract-style attack or under mysterious circumstances in recent years.

In November, Mikhail Beketov, a journalist for a suburban Moscow newspaper who was campaigning against what he called local corruption, was beaten into a coma and has yet to recover. In recent months, two former Chechen officials have been killed in Moscow, and last month in Vienna, a former bodyguard of the Chechen president was killed after filing a complaint against him with the European Court of Human Rights.

Mr. Putin’s response to Mr. Barroso stood in sharp contrast to a gesture last week by Mr. Medvedev, who met with the editor of Novaya Gazeta and expressed his “deepest sorrow” over the reporter’s death.

At the news conference on Friday, Mr. Barroso said: “In public opinion there is some concern regarding some recent events that happened in Russia. Namely, the murder of some journalists and some rights activists.”

Mr. Putin said Russia was willing to discuss human rights abuses, but wanted Europe to admit its own shortcomings. He said Russia was “not satisfied” with the treatment of Russian-speaking minorities in new member states of the European Union. He added: “We know about the rights of migrants in Europe, and how they are violated. So please, Mr. Barroso, here is the answering hockey puck from the government of the Russian Federation.”