Russia's State Duma recently held parliamentary hearings on human rights issues in the United States. To conclude the hearings, MPs and diplomats called on U.S. authorities to abolish the death penalty, close Guantanamo and stop talking about the United States as a world leader in the field of human rights protection.

On Monday Konstantin Dolgov, head of the Foreign Ministry on issues of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, said that "the US claims of being absolute leader in the field of human rights are untenable and not supported by reality," as quoted by Interfax.

According to Dolgov, among the most difficult challenges facing the U.S. right now are: issues of social inequality, racial discrimination, ethnic and religious discrimination, the practice of indefinite detention without charges, prisons operating outside the law, torture, and a weak and extremely overburdened prison system.

Besides these, Dolgov pointed out the existence of censorship in the U.S., as well as restrictions on internet freedoms, voting right restrictions, the disproportionate use of force against peaceful demonstrators, and other problems.

The ministry also believes that there are political prisoners in the United States: everyone who has been detained in American prisons without charge.

"I think that people being held without specific charges in the U.S., including military prisons, should be classified as political prisoners being held for political reasons," said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov to reporters just after the parliamentary hearings.

During the hearing, Russian MPs also called on the U.S. to "bring immediate and indefinite moratorium on the death penalty," and to immediately close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, reports the RIA Novosti news agency.

The parliamentary hearings in the State Duma on human rights in the United States coincided with the third round of election debates between presidential candidates in the U.S., the main theme of which is expected to be relations between Moscow and Washington.