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DE RUEHMO #1859/01 1830757
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P 010757Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8812
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 001859 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/30/2018 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI RS
SUBJECT: PUBLIC CHAMBERS CARVE NEW ROLE IN RUSSIA'S REGIONS 
 
Classified By: Acting Political M/C Robert Patterson.  Reason:  1.4 (d) 
. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Russia's regional elite are taking cues 
from the center and establishing "Public Chamber" bodies to 
provide a forum for societal organizations -- human rights, 
ecological, social advocacy -- to make their voices heard by 
regional administration and legislatures.  Given the 
increased visibility of the Federal Public Chamber in recent 
months, regional activists have some hope that they will be 
better positioned to influence policy through participation 
in locally-sponsored institutions.  Yet many within both the 
social activist camp and in the government are skeptical, 
fearing at worst that politicians and bureaucrats will use 
the regional public chambers as another instrument for 
controlling civil society or will ignore them completely.  In 
two Siberian regions, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk, where the 
administrations have only recently established public chamber 
organizations, most are taking a "wait and see" approach to 
the new institutions.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Building From Existing Organizations 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (C) In the past year, regional administrations have 
followed Moscow's lead and established Public Chambers. 
Federal Public Chamber member and head of the Chamber's 
Commission for Regional Development Vyacheslav Glazychev told 
us that about half of Russia's 84 regions have created their 
own public chambers.  In the remaining regions, governors 
have been opposed to creating a forum for possible public 
dissent and criticism, but are under increasing pressure from 
Moscow to follow suit.  Indicative of the trend, both 
Krasnoyarsk Kray and Irkutsk Oblast established Public 
Chambers over the past year, reportedly as a means of 
currying favor with the Kremlin. 
 
¶3.  (C) Krasnoyarsk Ombudsman for Human Rights Mark Denisov 
had responsibility for organizing his region's Public Chamber 
in his previous job on Governor Khloponin's staff.  Five 
"chambers" had already been established before the regional 
leadership decided to create its own overarching Public 
Chamber, each with a particular constituency and issue set, 
such as veteran's organizations or the women's issues.  Over 
the past year, an additional four "chambers" have been 
established for nationalities questions, ecological defense, 
and other social issues.  Denisov, with Khloponin's direct 
guidance, sought to use those structures as "building blocks" 
for an all-region Public Chamber.  Ultimately, they decided 
upon the creation of the "Citizens' Assembly," with an 
organizing committee composed of 34 members (with the 
possibility of adding an additional six members).  Half of 
the members are selected from the societal organizations 
themselves, with each of ten chambers selecting two committee 
members.  The governor a 
nd legislative assembly pick an additional fourteen members. 
 
¶4.  (C) As in Krasnoyarsk Kray, the newly assembled Public 
Chamber in Irkutsk Oblast was built upon existing societal 
structures, according to chamber member Galiya Bobkova of 
Irkutsk State University.  She saw the creation of the Public 
Chamber as an evolutionary step in a long process of social 
activism and "liberal" opposition in Irkutsk.  Tracing the 
movement's roots back to Soviet-era ecological protests 
against a paper/pulp mill on nearby Lake Baikal, Bobkova 
explained that regional activists had been attempting to 
influence government policy, while simultaneously working to 
foster understanding about funding opportunities for social 
work and to teach organizational techniques.  The Irkutsk 
chamber has 60 members, 15 appointed by the governor's 
offices, 15 by the legislative assembly, and the remaining 30 
elected by those appointees. 
 
¶5. (C) Bobkova expressed cautious optimism about the Public 
Chamber's potential, even though she complained that the 
agenda thus far targeted "serious" issues, but not those that 
the societal organizations would have chosen themselves.  She 
also outlined some of the bureaucratic hassles that the 
Chamber members are facing.  Her committee on education 
wanted to post a letter to the legislature but was unsure 
which letterhead to use -- a sign that the Irkutsk Chamber's 
work is also circumscribed by administrative issues. 
Already, the Chamber has discussed the merits of a 
gasification plan for the northern part of Irkutsk Oblast and 
Babkova boasted that they had fulfilled their task of 
recommending solutions without creating a "lot of noise" 
politically. 
 
Irkutsk Public Chamber: 
"A Club of Limited Interests" 
----------------------------- 
¶6. (C) Regional political observers and media are far more 
skeptical about the potential for the regional Public 
Chambers.  In general, our contacts expressed admiration for 
the delegates "as people," but saw the selection process as 
biased in favor of pro-administration voices.  Dmitriy 
Lyustritskiy, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Irkutsk 
Vostochno-Sibirskaya Pravda newspaper, complained that the 
regional Public Chamber is useless, a "suitcase without a 
handle."  Living up to his reputation as one of the more 
strident opponents to the Chamber, he noted to us that 
two-thirds of the appointees had no experience with politics, 
and the other third was composed of former players in 
regional politics.  Ultimately, Lyustritskiy saw the regional 
body as having far less gravitas than the federal Chamber and 
commented that the best and brightest of those who might have 
represented the region at the local Chamber had already left 
for Moscow. 
 
¶7. (C) Aleksey Petrov, of the now defunct regional branch of 
the Union of Right Forces (SPS) political party, complained 
that the Irkutsk Public Chamber was not a broad 
representation of society, but instead promoted the same 
circle of government-linked players that had dominated 
regional politics for many years (essentially turning 
Babkova's assertions of continuity into a critique).  He 
noted that the Chamber had made a declaration against a 
planned agglomeration of the cities of Irkutsk, Angarsk, and 
Shelekhov into a single municipality.  The unification scheme 
had been the brainchild of former governor Tishanin, with the 
idea that creating a "mega" city of more than 1 million 
residents from the existing towns would allow Irkutsk to be 
more competitive in garnering Federal monies and, perhaps, an 
IKEA complex as well.  According to Petrov, the Chamber made 
its ruling without actually having an open discussion, 
suggesting that it was following "acting" governor 
Esipovskiy's orders to reject his predecessor' 
s agenda. 
 
¶8. (C) The Chair of United Russia's Executive Committee in 
Irkutsk Natalya Dengina gave a much more positive spin on 
things, claiming that the regional Public Chamber had played 
an important role in assessing the development plan to 2020 
(which includes the agglomeration scheme).  She noted that 
the Chamber had expressed concern about balancing tourism 
development with ecological preservation -- indirect 
criticism of Tishanin's proposals for creating a vast 
tourist-recreation industry based on Baikal. 
 
Krasnoyarsk - Just Starting 
--------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) Krasnoyarsk's Public Chamber has only just begun its 
work, so our contacts there tended to take a "let's see" 
approach.  Denisov admitted some concerns about the work of 
the Public Chamber, including worries that government 
officials would try to use it to promote approval for 
particular policies.  He also complained that many of the 
social activists suffered from a "paternalistic" approach and 
would use the Public Chamber merely as a channel for winning 
benefits or handouts from the administration.  He also noted 
the highly formalistic structure of the organizing committee, 
which set very tight parameters for the Chamber's work. 
 
¶10. (C) The attitude of Aleksandr Uss, Speaker of the 
regional legislature and leader of the United Russia faction, 
epitomized the general ambivalence within the elite to the 
new Chamber.  He appeared surprised by the question and then 
answered that the fate of the Public Chamber in Krasnoyarsk 
Kray would depend upon society's acceptance of the new 
institution and the success of its members in organizing 
themselves and their work.  He underscored that the 
administration already had an "experts committee" that worked 
with the legislature in structuring laws that took into 
consideration the full range of ecological and social impact, 
implying that the Chamber's input on legislation was not 
necessary.  He expressed hope that the Chamber would serve as 
an "additional window" on the world for the administration 
and could help to grow civil society in the region. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶11. (C) The experience of Krasnoyarsk Kray and Irkutsk Oblast 
gives testimony to the national trend in establishing Public 
Chamber organizations.  Our contacts suggested that this 
trend reflected blind adherence to Moscow's dictates; an 
attempt to re-engage the "moderate" opposition forces that 
were cut out of the political process; and, perhaps more 
cynically, an attempt to force societal organizations to work 
with the state (and thus wean them off of any foreign 
funding).  In any case, the question now remains about the 
effectiveness of those institutions.  According to Alla 
Gerber, Director of the Moscow Holocaust Center and member of 
the federal-level Public Chamber, the benefit of 
participating in the Chamber for "outsiders" (i.e. activists 
outside of United Russia) is that membership gives the aura 
of being "one of Putin's children" -- a useful tool for 
pushing reluctant bureaucrats on particular issues.  Whether 
or not regional members enjoy the same clout at their level 
will depend upon the status that the local Public Chambers 
enjoy and the relative weight that each governor accords to 
them.  In the coming months, we will be watching to see how, 
or if, the Federal Public Chamber interacts with its regional 
affiliates as an indication of stronger organization and the 
creation of more inter-regional ties.  At the same time, we 
will also monitor the work of regional Chambers to see if 
they are allowed to develop their potential as an "accepted" 
avenue for civil society to advance its interests or to see 
if the institutions become another link in the vertical of 
power. 
RUSSELL