MOSCOW, June 22 (Itar-Tass) — Head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva stated about her quitting from the Presidential Human Rights Council. She has stated about this decision at a press conference on Friday.

A new procedure to form the council caused her decision. It was decided to use “a more transparent way” to nominate candidates for members of the council, head of the Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov explained. “It was decided that starting from July 1 the nomination of candidates for these 13 (vacant) seats will be launched at the website of the council. Public organizations, which consider themselves as part of the civil society, can make their nominations at the website,” he said. “The idea is the following: any public organizations can nominate their candidates from July 1 to August 1, and the voting on these candidates will be held in the Internet from August 1 to September 1,” Fedotov explained. “On the results of the rating voting the president will receive the list of 39 candidates, so, three candidates will run for each seat,” he pointed out. He recalled that “the president forms the makeup of the council and this is a collective advisor of the president.”

For his part, Alexeyeva stated that she “learnt about a new procedure to form the council at this press conference and decided to quit the council.”

Chairman of the Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov does not intend to resign. Meanwhile, he voiced concerns that a new procedure to form the council may make the current council unviable. “So, the whole council can be formed again, then there will be no problems,” Fedotov believes. If the council is staffed by two thirds, “a fine-tuning is needed,” he remarked.

Fedotov also noted that members of the council intend to recommend journalists Vladimir Pozner, Leonid Nikitinsky, human rights activists Ella Polyakova and Valery Borshchev, the former judge Sergei Pashin for vacant seats in the Presidential Human Rights Council.

The council has 38 members. Eleven members stated about their leaving from the council before.