The presidential council on human rights actually consists of highly decorated, objectively proper human rights activists; however, it has no power whatsoever. They came up with absolutely damning conclusions on the way that Sergei Magnitsky had been treated, and they submitted those to the president. They said basically his right to life was violated by the state, that he was tortured in custody, that the people who had killed him were basically the same people whom he had testified against. They presented this to the president of the country on July 5, 2011, and the President Medvedev, at the time, said he acknowledged that crimes were committed. To this day, with the exception of one low-level doctor, not a single person has been prosecuted. That tells you that as much as they have these organizations, and some of them are credible, like this organization...that's why a number of the members resigned. They said, “What's the purpose of sitting on this council, where they can use our name to say there is some kind of credible—”
On December 11th, 2012. See this statement in context.