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Opposition Coordination Council approves programme statement

The most important task of the CCO is working out a plan for a political reform

MOSCOW, February 16 (Itar-Tass) - The Coordination Council of the Opposition adopted a programme statement at its meeting on Saturday.

The objective of the CCO is the implementation of the resolutions of mass protest demonstrations that took place in Moscow and all over Russia in 2011-2012, the document reads.

The opposition believes as before that the elections to the State Duma in December 2011 and the presidential elections in March 2012 were "accompanied by mass violations of the law”, and therefore "the authorities formed in such elections are illegitimate”.

The most important task of the CCO is working out a plan for a political reform. The main points are release of those whom the opposition calls political prisoners, a reform of the judicial system and law enforcement authorities, transfer of some presidential powers to parliament, return of a four-year term for president and the State Duma and direct elections of Federation Council members, governors, mayors and heads of municipalities.

To achieve the aims, the CCO intends to coordinate protest activity in non-violence forms (rallies, demonstrations and strikes) and render assistance to opposition candidates in regional and local elections. The council believes it should not nominate own candidates.

The CCO will support citizens' participation in control over the election process, including their presence in election commissions, and conduct campaigns of public condemnation of those who have organized and committed election violations.

The document was discussed for several months. On Saturday, debates were held about only one formulation that "change of power in Russia will be achieved by a peaceful anti-criminal revolution". The opponents noted that the word "revolution" was discredited. The supporters said the question was one of only "peaceful non-violence actions". After the vote on the issue, the words "peaceful revolution" were left in the text.

The budget committee's report was also presented at the meeting. According to the report, citizens donated 5,617 roubles over the past two months for CCO activities. The amount of collected fees from council members has increased, committee head Vladimir Ashurkov noted. The CCO spends 82.350 rbls a month to hold monthly meetings and 200,000 rbls to pay to lawyers of those who as they believe are political prisoners.

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