The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights issued a statement Monday calling on the leaders of the G-7 nations to press the Russian Federation on “serious violations of international humans rights standards” taking place in Russia. In the organization’s appeal for the protection of political prisoners, the group claims: “No one can accept that Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev would be in prison today, had they not exercised their basic political rights and freedoms.”