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| Mikhail Fedotov appointed presidential adviser on human rights |
October 13, 2010 (KATAKAMI) --- The secretary of Russia's Union of Journalists, Mikhail Fedotov, has been appointed head of the president's council on human rights.
His predecessor Ella Pamfilova, one of Russia's most senior human rights advocates, resigned amid increasing pressure from Kremlin insiders in July.
A colleague said Pamfilova had been under attack from the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi (Ours), which she had criticized for hard-line populism.
She proposed economist Alexander Auzan as her successor, but was pleased at Fedotov's appointment on Tuesday.
"He speaks the same language as the others [in the council]," she told the Kommersant newspaper. "It would have been far worse if it had been someone from outside."
Fedotov was Press and Information Minister in the late Yegor Gaidar's cabinet in 1992-1993, and is the author of Russia's 1991 Media Law. He has shrugged off numerous attempts by the Kremlin to tamper with it.
MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti)
