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On 18 February 2015, the first meeting of the Commission on Improvement of Law and Regulatory Practice at the Presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Associations took place at Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.

The Commission was set up by the decision of the Council on 11 December 2015 and is chaired by Mr. Sergei Ivanov, head of the Presidential Administration.

The Council presents analytical materials and reports and recommendations on the relations between the state and religious associations to the President, discusses draft federal laws and other legal acts on these relations and prepares proposals to the head of the state.

As a rule, the Council holds its meetings twice a year, but consideration and realization of the adopted laws and solutions of the current problems demand quick elaboration of common stand of religious organizations, leading experts and state agencies.

The Commission consists of representatives of the major religious organizations of Russia and of relevant state agencies, lawyers, and religious scholars. Discussed at the meeting, among other issues, were important draft laws which affect interests of the believers and the activity of religious organizations and are currently considered by the State Duma.

The Russian Orthodox Church was represented at the meeting by Bishop Sergy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for Church-Society relations; archpriest Andrei Milkin, head of the Patriarchal protocol service; and the Revd. Sergy Zvonarev, heads of the DECR secretariat for far abroad countries. Bishop Sergy and archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin took part in the discussion speaking on the transfer of the relics and the improvement of the law.