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Kudrin upholds Voters' League emergence

The establishment of a new movement, dubbed the Voters' League, was announced by its participants this past Monday

MOSCOW, January 17 (Itar-Tass) — Ex-Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin has upheld the creation of a movement that intends to monitor observance of the electoral rights of the people of Russia.

"I support the creation of the Voters' League," Kudrin wrote in his Twitter microblog on Tuesday.

The establishment of a new movement, dubbed the Voters' League, was announced by its participants this past Monday. The idea was authored by writer Boris Akunin and journalist Leonid Parfyonov who are among the founders of the movement. Musician Yuri Shevchuk, writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya, TV programme host Tatiana Lazareva and other prominent pubic and political figures are members of the League.

On Monday, Kudrin declared in favour of launching "a substantive process of negotiations" between representatives of the meetings' organizing committee and the authorities.

"The first post - (New-Year) holiday contacts with the representatives of both the organizing committee and the authorities make one state the lack of progress in the sides' awareness of the need to start a substantive negotiating process," Kudrin maintains.

He believes that "a further maintenance of the status quo is dangerous". "In order to take the situation out of deadlock, it is essential for the sides to make one step each to meet the other side half-way," Kudrin emphasized.

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