Russia’s Kabarda-Balkaria consultative council comes under fire

22.03.2006 Editor

KABARDA-BALKARIA, 21 March, Caucasus Times – A public consultative council has been set up under the Kabarda-Balkar president, officials have told Caucasus Times.

The 60-strong council includes seven MPs, heads of public organizations, national and cultural centres, religious communities, pensioners, university teachers and three students. Its decisions will not be binding [on the government].

Commenting on the composition of the council, the chairman of the Kabarda-Balkar branch of the Union of Right Forces, Anzor Shakhmurzov, said that the general public associates many of them with the previous regime.

He said that members of the public organizations that represent the true force are not on the list of “consultants”.

“This is an attempt to build civil society from the top. I am not sure they will achieve anything,” Shakhmurzov said.

Inga Babaeva, Nalchik, Caucasus Times

Editor

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