The director of Greenpeace Russia may leave the Human Rights Council

The director of the Russian branch of Greenpeace, Sergei Tsyplenkov, said that he is likely to leave the presidential Human Rights Council.

Tsyplenkov told Interfax on Tuesday, June 26, that for him the key point is the withdrawal from the Presidential Council of veterans of the human rights movement - Lyudmila Alekseeva, Boris Pustyntsev and Valentin Gefter. “If they don’t stay, I see no reason to stay,” the ecologist said. “I want to talk to them and then make my own decision,” said the director of Greenpeace Russia.

“For me, the procedure for selecting and inviting members of the Council is not so important. In the end, this is the prerogative of the president. What is important to me is the composition and the way the work is organized: the absence of censorship, the presence of freedom of speech, a composition that includes independent people,” Tsyplenkov emphasized.

He could become the 18th activist to leave the Presidential Human Rights Council. The day before, the Chairman of the Council, Mikhail Fedotov, said in an interview with PublicPost that if 6 more members leave the Council, it will be dissolved.