The first congress was attended by pro-Russian separatist officials of the Donetsk People's Republic, Donbass Militia. Notable figures were involved, including: Donetsk Republic leader Pavel Gubarev (member of the Neo-Nazi Russian National Unity), writer Alexander Prokhanov, fascist[12][13][14] political scientist and Eurasia Party leader Aleksandr Dugin, and Valery Korovin.[4] The congress announced the creation of a new self-declared confederate state called 'New Russia'. The state would, according to Dugin, have its capital city in Donetsk, Russian Orthodox Christianity as the state religion, and would nationalize major industries.[15] According to Gubarev the state would also include (the major cities currently not under control of separatists) Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia.[16][17][18]