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Social fund previously headed by Maria Gaidar will continue working after her resignation

Russian public figure Maria Gaidar resigned after being appointed vice-governor of south Ukraine's Odessa region by Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili

Office of the Social Demand foundation TASS/Artiom Korotaev

Office of the Social Demand foundation

© TASS/Artiom Korotaev

MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. A representative of the Social Demand foundation previously headed by newly-appointed Odessa Deputy Governor Maria Gaidar has said Tuesday the fund will continue working.

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Refuting media reports on the fund’s liqudations following Gaidar’s resignation from the post of director, Social Demand press secretary Natalya Malysheva said: "The decision has been made that the foundation works and will continue working."

Last week, Georgia’s former president and Odessa’s Governor Mikheil Saakashvili appointed Russian public figure Maria Gaidar as his deputy. Gaidar is the daughter of Yegor Gaidar, an ideologist of liberal economic reforms in Russia in the 1990s.

Russia’s human rights ombudsperson Ella Pamfilova said she would propose depriving Gaidar’s Social Demand fund of receiving the presidential grant. The presidential grant was allocated to the project aimed at "protecting rights and freedoms of citizens in the public and social spheres." It includes creating a website, organizing events aimed at educating and training journalists working with civil issues. "The project will establish a positive social practice, increase the level of civic literacy among journalists and population," the draft proposal said.

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