13:30, 21 December 2014

In Volgograd, NGO members see no dialogue with regional authorities

In Volgograd, NGO members discussed problems of interaction with authorities. Volgograd, December 20, 2014. Photo by Tatiana Filimonova for the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

In Volgograd, participants of the "roundtable" have declared absence of interaction between human rights activists and government officials. Besides, they have also claimed lack of transparency of grants and pointed out some financial problems. NGO members have noted the need to establish a human rights council in Volgograd.

The event was organized by the regional office of the association "The Voice", and it was held in Volgograd on December 20. The "roundtable" was attended by members of 11 NGOs, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

"The authorities treat us with hostility; however, we do not criticize them, but we provide them with the very thread to start working. We form pockets of concern and suggest the direction to choose. However, we are perceived as a party, which is trying to crush and humiliate 'the poor' authorities. We need an administration body to interact with NGOs," said Alexei Ulyanov, the leader of the Volgograd NGO "Public Independent Inspection", during the "roundtable".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Author: Tatiana Filimonova

Source: CK correspondent