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Russia's Opposition Coordination Council ceases to exist

The date of the election of a new OCC has not been set so far

MOSCOW, October 21 (Itar-Tass). — The last meeting of the Russian Opposition Coordination Council (OCC) on Saturday was attended by only 10 its members of the total 40. Due to lack of quorum, the meeting was cancelled, and the OCC ceased to exist. The date of the election of a new Council, which is elected for one year, is so far unknown.

The Opposition Coordination Council, elected on October 21, 2012 for a period of one year, has ceased to exist, the Kommersant daily writes.

The date of the election of a new OCC, according to the Council member Sergei Davidis, has not been set so far.

It is not for the first time that meetings of the Opposition Coordination Council have been cancelled due to lack of quorum, the newspaper notes. In September, several OCC members, in particular, Alexei Navalny, Dmitry Gudkov and Gennady Gudkov, Sergei Parkhomenko stated that they would not participate in the election of a new Council. And in the view of oppositionist Ilya Yashin, the OCC has not been a success as an institution.

The OCC was established in autumn 2012 in an online voting, in which more than 80 thousand people took part, the Kommersant daily recalls. The coordination of protest movements was declared as the main task of the Council. The OCC founders do not hide the fact that within the framework of OCC they see no possibility to effectively stage protests. Experts believe that OCC is split and it will not become a full-fledged organization.

“The OCC members already don’t link their plans with the OCC work,” Sergei Davidis commented on the situation to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper.

OCC member, human rights activist Anna Karetnikova shared with the RBC Daily her impressions from the work in the Council: “The most important thing in the OCC was its election. It was the greatest achievement. A large number of people elected their representatives whom they considered worthy. As for the work itself, I cannot mention anything really positive about it - the people were not quite aware themselves where they were going, that it was necessary to work somehow, did not measure it with their occupation and possibilities. I cannot say that the OCC has made some crucial decisions.”