| JRL HOME | SUPPORT | SUBSCRIBE | RESEARCH & ANALYTICAL SUPPLEMENT | |
Old Saint Basil's Cathedral in MoscowJohnson's Russia List title and scenes of Saint Petersburg
Excerpts from the JRL E-Mail Community :: Founded and Edited by David Johnson

#24 - JRL 2006-242 - JRL Home
Russia Uses G8 Presidency to Bolster Position of NGOs

MOSCOW. Oct 27 (Interfax) - The Civil G8 plans to hold its final conference in November, said Valery Kuzmin, director of the department on links with Russian regions, the parliament and public organizations at the foreign Ministry.

"Non-governmental organizations will publish recommendations for the agenda of the next Group of Eight summit and will pass the baton in the dialogue with the public to a new chairman, Germany" at the forum, he said.

More than 40 Russian NGOs were behind the Civil G8-2006 project, the diplomat said.

The implementation of the project allowed NGOs from almost all continents to get involved in the activity, Kuzmin said.

"In distinction from the so-called traditional democracies, Russian society has not had much time to set up civil institutes," the official said.

"Despite the absence of experience in organizing such major events, Russia tried its best to make use of the opportunity in order to strengthen the position of Russian NGOs both in Russia and in relations with our foreign partners," Kuzmin said.