MOSCOW, August 16 - RAPSI. President Vladimir Putin is not against human rights commissioners participating on judicial qualification boards.

At the moment, regional judicial qualification boards mostly consist of community leaders, judges and presidential representatives.

The boards provide recommendations to judicial candidates, impose disciplinary fines and decide on dismissals.

The issue of whether regional ombudsmen should be allowed to sit on the boards was raised by human rights activists during the president's meeting with human rights commissioners.

"Is it possible to allow human rights commissioners to participate? I believe that we need to think about this, as for me, I cannot see any contradictions here," Putin said.

He added that the ombudsmen would not infringe upon the independence of judges, as they would only consider disciplinary issues.