Several of Russia's leading human rights advocates plan to quit the presidential Human Rights Council after President-elect Vladimir Putin takes up his post on May 7, Russian media reported on Wednesday.
Among those planning to leave the human rights body are Transparency International Russia chief Yelena Panfilova, political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin and Civil Cooperation head Svetlana Gannushkina.
Panfilova, who presented a report on corruption at the last Council meeting on Saturday, said she remained in the Council only because of the pledge she gave to the mother of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died in pre-trial detention in 2009, to investigate his death. "I think I'll do much more with my civil activity within my current job," Panfilova said in an interview with Kommersant daily.
Oreshkin, another Council member, decided to quit the body after his report on electoral violations was rejected under the pretext of the President's tight schedule. He said he was going to tell the facts showing up to 14 percent of ballot stuffing in Putin's results during the March presidential elections which brought him to a landslide victory that critics said was achieved through numerous violations. "I regard Putin as an illegitimate President. I won't be able to work in his Council," Vedomosti was quoted in the media as saying.
Gannushkina of human rights group Civil Cooperation will also quit the Council, the reports said.
Veteran human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseeva, however, said the human rights advocates should closely cooperate with the state authorities and not ignore them.
In December last year, amid mass street protest against alleged fraud in Russia's parliamentary elections, prominent human rights activist Irina Yasina and journalist Svetlana Sorokina left the Kremlin Council on human rights over what they described as "falsifications" during the vote and "brutal reprisal" against pro-democracy protesters.
The presidential Human Rights Council is known for its independent stance but it has no legal authority and had its recommendations ignored in the past.
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