Human rights activist Yelena Panfilova will quit the Russian Presidential Council on Human Rights, Council head Mikhail Fedotov said in his Twitter microblog on Saturday.
“An excellent meeting of the Council with Dmitry Medvedev. Panfilova made a report on corruption and said she is leaving. [President] Medvedev asked her to stay,” Fedotov wrote.
Panfilova, a Council member and director of Transparency International’s Russian branch, confirmed to RIA Novosti that she was quitting the Council.
“I believe that in the current public situation it is more important for me to remain a civil activist because other changes in society now depend not on the authorities but on society,” she said, adding that she would continue her human rights activity.
“I told the president today honestly that I do not see myself in the Council but rather in everyday civil activity,” she said.
The Presidential Council on Human Rights held its last meeting under outgoing President Medvedev on Saturday.
Medvedev, likely to become prime minister after President-elect Vladimir Putin is sworn in on May 7, expressed confidence that the Council would continue working as usual.
Panfilova was born on December 18, 1967 in Moscow. Her work focuses on developing anticorruption strategies for countries with transitional democracies and anticorruption research.
