#2 - JRL 7255
RUSSIAN ENTREPRENEURS, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS JOIN HANDS TO PROTECT BUSINESS INTERESTS

MOSCOW, JULY 17, 2003 /from RIA Novosti's Yelena Fyodorova/ -Entrepreneurs and human rights activists of Russia have set up an emergency group to protect the business community's interests, Ella Pamfilova, Chairwoman of the Russian President's Human Rights Commission, told a Moscow press conference Thursday.

Pamfilova said the idea behind was to prevent the chain reaction of injustices toward people upon whom the national economy relied. She reported having met with the Russian Attorney General earlier in the day, saying she hoped for law-enforcement agencies' future cooperativeness on matters of business security.

Arkady Volsky, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, said, for his part, that he found the prospect of property redistribution very disturbing. He acknowledged that the post-Soviet privatization campaign had been effected with no sufficient enabling legislation yet in force. But, in his view, private owners and the government must now find a sensible compromise for common good.

In conclusion, Volsky expressed satisfaction with the talks he had had the previous day with President Vladimir Putin.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov promised Thursday that the privatization results would not be revised, but stressed the need to raise the quality and transparency of privatization processes in the years ahead.