Formation of Public Chamber Completed in Russia

The Russian Public Chamber has been fully staffed. Friday the effective 84 members of the Chamber elected the remaining one third of representatives – 42 deputies from regional and inter-regional public organizations.

Earlier five names had been deleted from the list of runners-up on juridical grounds. As a result, the number of candidates for the Public Chamber from regional and inter-regional organizations had dropped to 80. Out of that number, 42 new members were elected – six from each federal region.

Among those elected to the third part of the Public Chamber are sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, rector of the Literary Institute Sergei Yesin, bishop of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Feofan, a member of the "Business Russia" coordinating board, an advisor to ataman of the Great Host of the Don, a consultant of the M. Sholokhov Museum Reserve, and others.

According to the federal law on the Public Chamber, which became effective on July 1, 2005, the 126-seat Chamber would analyze the prevailing laws and other important legislative acts and make decisions of an advisory nature. The decisions would be formalized as conclusions, proposals and appeals.

As has been reported, the first 42 members of the Public Chamber, those who "have rendered special services to the state and society", had been hand-picked by the President himself. They were planned to constitute the first – and the most authoritative – third part of the Chamber. Among them were new head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin, medical doctors Leonid Rochal and Leo Bokeria, academician Eugeny Velikhov, metropolitan of Kaluga and Borovsk Clement, mufti Ravil Gainutdin, Russia's chief rabbi Berl Lazar, editor-in-chief of the "Moskovski Komsomolets" newspaper Pavel Gusev, sportswomen Irina Rodnina and Alina Kabayeva, lawyer Anatoli Kucherena, president of the National Association of TV and Radio Broadcasters Edward Sagalayev.