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Moscow Times
November 23, 2001
Civic Forum Winds Up on a High Note
A two-day Kremlin-sponsored Civic Forum wrapped up Thursday with high expectations from the thousands of civic activists present that steps were being made to open up a dialogue with the government.
Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, speaking at the closing session in the Kremlin, said the government was ready to welcome "any ideas, maybe even the most astonishing ones," Interfax reported.
"Without the participation of public organizations, reform of the government's social policy is doomed to fail," Kasyanov said.
He added that the development of "horizontal" connections in society and the economy -- and particularly the nurturing of small- and medium-sized businesses -- would be a top priority next year.
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said the forum's organizing committee would publish reports about the event over the next six months.
"We will work so that the impulse of the forum will wind up the mechanisms of interaction between authorities and society," she said.
Civic activists spent most of Thursday in discussions and meetings with top government officials.
On Thursday, discussion groups, which first met Wednesday, broke into smaller groups that delegated representatives for talks with government officials. "We've met with lower level government officials before," said Sergei Shimovolos, head of the Committee Against Torture in Nizhny Novgorod. "But the novelty of this forum is the discussion levels."
Representatives from his group, which discussed police torture Thursday, went on to meet with Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov.
The forum cost $1.5 million to organize, Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko said. She said the cost was covered by groups such as Alfa-Bank, Interros and Sberbank.
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