Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Geneva on March 3, 2014 and used a UN Human Rights Council podium to present Russia as a human rights champion. Lavrov said (with a straight face): "For Russia the protection of human and civil rights and freedoms is a basic priority...human rights is too serious a matter to be used either as bargaining chip in political games or a means of imposing one's will on others, not to mention as a pretext for regime change operation...All internal crises should be overcome without external interference..." He also thanked the Council members for electing Russia as a member of the UN's top human rights body "by an overwhelming majority."
Russia is currently occupying parts of Ukraine on the pretext of protecting ethnic Russian speakers in a foreign country.