On 2 February at 12 noon in RAMI RIA News, a news conference titled “Defence of the Rights of Animals: The Russian and International Experience” took place. VITA leaders Elena Maroueva and Irina Novozhilova, writer and journalist Irina Oziornaya and attorney Stanislav Markelov participated in the news conference.

Many famous people approved of the idea to make a "Compassion" monument. The guardian council included: Elena Kamburova (chairman), Oleg Anofriev, Arkady Arkanov, Bella Akhmadulina, Andrey Bitov, Eugeniy Bunimovich, Elina Bistritskaya, Valentin Gaft, Gennady Gladkov, Alexander Gradsky, Grigory Gladkov, Vladimir Dashkevich, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Eugeniy Evtushenko, Fasil Iskander, Ludmila Kasatkina, Yury Kuklachev, Mikhail Levitin, Andery Makarevich, Olga Ostroumova, Lubov Polishchuk, Vyacheslav Pyetsukh, Konstantin Raikin, Yury Rost, Sergey Sereda (the president of Russian veterinary practitioners’ League), Yury Solomin, Yury Shevchuk, Mikhail Shirvindt, Alexey Shcheglov, Yury Yakovlev; lawyers: Polina Zhuk, Ekaterina Polyakova, Stanislav Markelov, Henrikh Padva, Henry Reznik and others. A writer and a journalist Irina Ozyornaya was the supervisor of the project.