Senior lawmakers from the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly arrived in Moscow on Monday to assess Russia's compliance with its obligations to the continent's top human rights body.
Dick Marty, the assembly's rapporteur on human rights in the North Caucasus, held talks with State Duma deputies later in the day and will travel to the region Tuesday to meet with the presidents of Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan, the Council of Europe said.
He also will meet with Alexander Khloponin, the Kremlin's envoy to the newly created North Caucasus Federal District, and hold talks with local law enforcement agencies and human rights groups, it said.
Marty said he would publish his report in June, RIA-Novosti reported.
Marty, a Swiss lawmaker for the Free Democratic Party, is best known for his 2007 report that shed light on secret prisons in Poland and Romania in which the CIA interrogated detainees in its war on terror.
The Parliamentary Assembly's co-rapporteurs for monitoring Russia, Swiss deputy Andreas Gross and György Frunda of Romania, also arrived Monday for a three-day visit. Gross told The Moscow Times that he planned to meet as many officials as possible to make a political evaluation of the situation.
The Strasbourg-based 47-member organization is the continent's oldest human rights body. Russia has been a full member since 1996.