Expert Chamber

On Monday, June 19, the first meeting of the public chamber of the new, sixth, convocation took place. Valery Fadeev, editor -in -chief of the magazine Expert, was elected secretary. He promised first of all to fight the dependence of the regional chambers on local authorities and strengthen the expert role of the chamber.

The previous composition of the Public Chamber was formed, including by voting on the website of the “Russian Public Initiative”, so this was partly an event: electronic voting was still a curiosity, now, for example, it was used by the capital's authorities to determine the opinion of the owners of apartments about renovation.

Infographics of the Public Chamber

But the new composition of the OP was formed without any voting. 40 people were approved by the Presidential Decree, 84 were delegated by regional public chambers, 43 more were selected by members of the Chamber of the current and new compositions of 403 candidates from non -profit organizations. In general, in 2017, the composition of the chamber was updated by 65%.

The secretary, in fact, leads the activities of the Public Chamber. Fadeev was previously a member of the Public Chamber: he is one of the co -authors of the Law on OP, was a member of the Chamber of the first, second and third convocations.

The place of the first deputy secretary received a former FSB officer Vyacheslav Bocharov, who led the chamber since April. Fadeev’s deputies were elected professor at the Higher School of Economics Lidia Mikheeva, former UN Secretary General Sergey Ordzhonikidze and vice president of the Institute of Modern Politics, Alexander Domichenov. All of them, including Fadeev, entered the new composition of the OP on the presidential list.

Vyacheslav Bocharov OP RF

The secretary of the previous composition of OP, Alexander Brechalov, on April 4 was appointed acting head of Udmurtia.

Fadeev’s program looks quite technical: he promised to strengthen the expert function of the OP and fight the dependence of the public chambers in the regions on the “pressure of local authorities, the pressure of the governors”. “It is necessary to increase the distance between the authorities and the public chambers,” he said. When he was asked about the attitude to protests, Fadeev accused their organizers of the absence of a “sense of history”. It turns out that the new secretary of OP is not going to invade the sphere of public policy - otherwise he would have prepared a more detailed answer to an obvious question.

Meanwhile, the very meaning of the existence of the Public Chamber is reinterpreted once every few years, but there has not yet been found a successful format. In 2005, OP was created as a response to criticism of the cancellation of the governor's elections. True, OP members were not granted the right to legislative initiative, it has become a consulting body.

Initially, many people were assigned to the OP who, in one way or another, enjoyed the trust of civil society. In 2010, the chambers of the chamber were Henry Reznik, Elena Lukyanova, Marat Gelman, Nikolai Svanidze and many others. But in the winter of 2011-2012, despite the initiative of OP members, they did not become intermediaries between the demonstrators and the authorities, which finally meaningless this body.

The scale of the Public Chamber is clearly visible by the one with whom she had to conflict: in 2012, a rally was held before the OP office. Muscovites did not like the plans for cutting trees in the Mius square for the construction of parking for members and guests of the OP. It is difficult to imagine that district activists somehow interfered with the construction work of the State Duma or the Federation Council.

Participants in the action against cutting trees for the construction of parking of the Public Chamber. 2013 Group "Mius Square"

In March 2017, the FAS discovered a cartel conspiracy during the state procurement of OP, the application was written by members of the activists of the Yabloko anti -corruption center. It turned out that, for example, a sewing workshop was supposed to prepare a report on a civilian society, and a funeral bureau and a hairdresser were submitted for the right to hold a civil forum in Chechnya.

The new composition of the Public Chamber will be valid for three years, that is, the nearest presidential elections on it. As in these conditions, OP and her new secretary, Valery Fadeev, will show himself, will tell time.