MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Head of Russian Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov hopes that amendments that President Vladimir Putin is expected to propose to a bill on non-governmental organizations would significantly improve it.

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"The French say: It's the tone that makes the music. It is enough to change the bill's tone, change its style, change some wordings, remove some words and add some other words, define what political activity is, define what a foreign source is, and define to what nongovernmental organizations this law would be applied," Fedotov said on Echo Moskvy on Tuesday.

He said he had forwarded his proposals on amending the NGO bill to State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin in the morning and handed over a table with these amendments to President Putin at a meeting later on Tuesday.

"At the meeting itself (with Putin), I twice read out the amendments that I have proposed," Fedotov said, adding that Putin called them interesting.

"If these amendments are made to the bill, this will be quite an appropriate bill," Fedotov said.

Putin hosted a meeting with human rights defenders earlier on Tuesday. Taking part in the meeting, in addition to Fedotov, were Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin, Commissioner for Businessmen's Rights Boris Titov, and deputy presidential chief of staff Vyacheslav Volodin.

The participants discussed bills on NGO and libel. Putin said he was willing to personally ask parliamentarians to make some amendments to these bills. "If we see that these bills need to be adjusted, I am prepared to ask the
deputies personally to make relevant amendments," Putin said.

Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russia, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's - Russian News - Russia

MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Head of Russian Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov hopes that amendments that President Vladimir Putin is expected to propose to a bill on non-governmental organizations would significantly improve it.

file photo
"The French say: It's the tone that makes the music. It is enough to change the bill's tone, change its style, change some wordings, remove some words and add some other words, define what political activity is, define what a foreign source is, and define to what nongovernmental organizations this law would be applied," Fedotov said on Echo Moskvy on Tuesday.

He said he had forwarded his proposals on amending the NGO bill to State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin in the morning and handed over a table with these amendments to President Putin at a meeting later on Tuesday.

"At the meeting itself (with Putin), I twice read out the amendments that I have proposed," Fedotov said, adding that Putin called them interesting.

"If these amendments are made to the bill, this will be quite an appropriate bill," Fedotov said.

Putin hosted a meeting with human rights defenders earlier on Tuesday. Taking part in the meeting, in addition to Fedotov, were Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin, Commissioner for Businessmen's Rights Boris Titov, and deputy presidential chief of staff Vyacheslav Volodin.

The participants discussed bills on NGO and libel. Putin said he was willing to personally ask parliamentarians to make some amendments to these bills. "If we see that these bills need to be adjusted, I am prepared to ask the
deputies personally to make relevant amendments," Putin said.