Ahead of the new coming action by the opposition, set for February 4th, the social organization The Rest of Russia has appeared in the country. As its main aim it stated the protection of the interests of civil society. It stands for a radical reform of relations between the state and society, launching civil control over all branches of power and social processes. The initiators of the movement think that social councils under ministries and bodies have no future. They suggest reforming the Public Chamber, launching an election principle for entering it and providing its members with wider powers.
The initiators of the new civil movement spoke about its structure and aims.
The coordinator of the organization committee of The Rest of Russia, Igor Ryabov
Our movement was born from a spontaneous idea. Every day we have new partners. We launched the web-site russia-ost.ru, where active social groups from the whole country can register. We have no united organizational center. We complement each other, and so develop. There is a great gap between the authorities and ordinary people. People fight for themselves, their relatives and neighbors, and often fail. Our target is to make their voice heard. We aim to establish movements for a big civil structure. Every idea requires an institution. We suggest reform of the Public Chamber. Today the Public Chamber is a body under the President, so only the President has the right to reform it. We see this structure spread throughout the whole country, with regional missions and platforms for discussion of the population’s problems. This structure should be based on an electoral principle, including at the federal level. Moreover, we think it is necessary to dissolve social councils under ministries and bodies, as few of them achieve any results. If our program works, it means our civil society is able to delegate fully-fledged groups of civil control under the authorities’ activity. We plan to conduct a pan-civic forum, and then address those who can provide the reform.
The leader of the Emergency Aid Union, Dmitry Belyakov
A union is a layer between bureaucrats and ordinary citizens in the labor sphere. Today union movement is developing in Russia. There are independent unions. As for social control, unions should support such initiatives form the point of view of employers and employees. That is why we decided to participate in the project The Rest of Russia. We hope other unions will join us.
Chairman of the movement Doctrine-77, Maksim Brusnitsyn
Looking through the manifesto, we understood that many methods and approaches coincide with ours. After the speech of Ivan Okhlabystin, organizations began to appear in various cities in the country. We think that the basis of Russia’s prosperity is a civil society. That is why we are ready to support the ideas of The Rest of Russia. We don’t want to participate in politics, we want to build a civil society.
Journalist Vladimir Mamontov
Often we consider some ideas to be public opinion, but this is not the case for The Rest of Russia. For example, the agenda at the demonstration on Bolotnaya Square didn’t reflect the relevant problems of people living in Vladivostok. At the same time, these people lay claim to be spokesmen for public opinion. These spokesmen suggested launching a social voting censorship. The movement Diamond Rublevka suggests its activists have 1.5 voices, while common people have 0.5 of a voice. These people do not respect and do not understand life in the rest of Russia, while residents of the rest of Russia do not understand the problems of tycoons. I think everyone has equal rights to vote or education. Of course, there will be no equality between them, but there should be conscience.
Journalist Maksim Shevchenko
I support the aims and targets declared by the initiators of The Rest of Russia. I’m not a sociologist and don’t research the real preferences of voters, but the arrogance of the representatives of the anti-Putin movement shows that there is one Russia, which they claim to speak for, and the rest of Russia, where about 100 million people live, and which doesn’t want to obey a group of provocateurs. The rest of Russia wants democracy and freedom of the mass media. I’m working in the Caucasus. Day after day I lay to rest my friends killed in Dagestan. But there are no people living in the rest of Russia for the initiators of the demonstration on Bolotnaya Square.
