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World Jewish News
Bureau of the Russian Jewish Congress Decides on Presidential Candidacy
10.03.2009
The Bureau of the Russian Jewish Congress has decided on the candidacy of the Congress President.
The Bureau of the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC), the major secular Jewish organization in the country, has decided on the candidate for the position of the Congress President. The RJC Presidium is recommended to choose Yuri Kanner for this position. For Vyacheslav Kantor, who is at a loose end right now, the bureau has proposed to create a new position – Head of the RJC presidium.
At the meeting of the RJC Bureau (the members of the Bureau are RJC sponsors), the businessman Yuri Kanner was approved to be the candidate for the position of head of the organization. It should be reminded that the position of the RJC President became vacant after Vyacheslav Kantor resigned in February 2009. Mr. Kantor explained his decision by saying that he "intends to focus on European projects on combating anti-Semitism" (reported by "Kommersant" on February 7).
The Russian Jewish Congress was founded in 1996 and is considered the leading secular Jewish organization in Russia. The RJC is involved in charitable, educational and cultural projects, as well as perpetuating the memory of the Holocaust. The governing bodies of the Congress, in particular, include the entrepreneurs Mikhail Friedman and David Yakobashvili, the first Vice Mayor of Moscow Vladimir Resin, a lawyer Henry Reznik, and Nobel laureate Academician Vitaly Ginzburg. The first president of the RJC was the media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky.
As "Ъ" was told in the Congress Bureau, the candidature of Mr. Kanner was approved unanimously. "We have very little choice," confessed to "Ъ" vice-president of RJC Eugene Satanovsky. "Only a donor can be elected President (sponsor. - "Ъ"), a Russian Jew and a representative of big business, who is ready to engage in Jewish social work." "If he had succeeded to raise the collective farm in the Tiumen region in Soviet times, he will definitely manage the RJC," says Mr. Satanovsky.
Mr. Kanner is known to the Jewish community as the head of the Board of Trustees of the Moscow Jewish Religious Community and the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors of the European Jewish Fund. The candidacy of Mr. Kanner is to be approved by the RJC Presidium, which must meet within the next two months. "I think there will be no objections on the candidacy of Kanner," suggested a member of the RJC Presidium, President of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations of Russia, Rabbi Zinovy Kogan. "I hope that with the advent of a new president, the RJC regional offices will revive and help the Jewish religious organizations," he added.
Bureau members did not leave the RJC ex-president Vyacheslav Kantor without a position. While appreciating his work, they recommended that the RJC Presidium elect Mr. Cantor Chairman of the Presidium. In order to do so, they will need to upgrade the existing management structure, as currently there is no such position. "The new structure will strengthen the system of the Congress governance in its new capacity, will give it more flexibility and efficiency," said the RJC press service. Mr. Cogan is convinced that: "This is being done for Kanner and Kantor to work in a tandem for some time, like Putin with Medvedev. So that one put another in the picture."
Kanner Yuri Isaakovich.
Born on May 20, 1955 in the USSR. In the 1990s he was the CEO of "Intersplav Interdisciplinary Consortium" JSC, engaged in construction and renovation of buildings in the capital by means of investment contracts with the Moscow mayor's office. According to the Uniform Register of legal entities, Kanner is a co-founder of seven companies engaged in construction activities and transactions with real estate, as well as "Printing MMP" LLC, "Pelikan" LLC (commerce), "5 points" LLC (the activities of restaurants and cafes), GLEBOVO non-for-profit partnership, and a non-profit Foundation of regional and public relations (activities in the field of law). In addition, in 2006, he was mentioned in the media as the general representative of the Russian-Swiss Business Association (SRBA), which also offers to its members, who have made contributions in the amount of $ 1,5-3 thousand, "assistance in obtaining business visas in Switzerland" and corporate discounts on Swiss goods and services. In 2007, he was mentioned in the media as President of the board of directors of "Parus" JSC, which works on construction of a pig complex for 50 thousand heads in the Tiumen region. In the meantime he is engaged in social activities: a vice-chairman of the Governing Council of the European Jewish Fund (established in 2006), director of the "Russian Baby Yars" project. According to the electronic catalogue of Russian dissertations, in 2004 Yuri Isaakovich Kanner defended his thesis on the topic "Impact of informational technology factor on economic growth in Russia."
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