| In an apparent attempt to boost Kremlin control over civil
society, President Vladimir Putin has dissolved the Human Rights Commission
and replaced it with the Council for Developing Civil Society Institutions
and Human Rights.
Commission head Ella Pamfilova has been appointed to lead the new council,
while Kremlin-connected political analysts and prominent human rights
figures are among its members.
The council will likely act as a liaison body between the authorities
and nongovernmental organizations, promoting top-down initiatives on civil
society, some of its members said Wednesday.
Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov, one of the council members,
said that the commission had overlapped with the government's human rights
ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin.
"The council will focus more on human rights organizations. Lukin
will be more involved in dealing with individual cases," Markov said.
Sergei Karaganov, chairman of the Defense and Foreign Policy Council
and another pro-Kremlin council member, said the council would also help
civil society develop. "Without help from above it does not develop,"
he said. "The commission can generate ideas and also collect money
to help the process."
New figures invited by Pamfilova to join the council include respected
pollster Yury Levada and former Nezavisimaya Gazeta chief editor Vitaly
Tretyakov.
"I still do not know if my work can be useful for the council or
not," Levada said. "Civil society is not organized by the government,
president or king. Historically, it develops very slowly."
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