Out of Moscow?

Parliamentary United Russia members opposed Medvedev’s initiative to move parliament beyond the Moscow Ring Road as part of the expansion of Moscow. They were supported by the factions of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia. One LDPR leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, tried in vain to convince his colleagues that it was better to work in the fresh air.

As Kommersant writes, the leader of the United Russia faction, Andrei Vorobyov, said that the move of parliament beyond the Moscow Ring Road is nothing more than a threat to Russian democracy. He argued this by saying that parliament, as a symbol of freedom and statehood, should not be on the periphery, but in the center. True, along the way, it occurred to him that the village of Kommunarka on the Kaluga Highway “will also be the center of Moscow.” However, he was offended that “there is a place in Moscow for ZIL and other enterprises, but there is no place for parliament.” Deputy head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction Sergei Reshulsky said that any citizen of Russia should have access to parliament; if parliament is “driven to the outskirts”, this will be difficult. And the leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, recalled that up to fourteen thousand repressed people were buried in Kommunarka. He said he was against building a parliamentary center “on the bones of citizens.”

Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov responded to all this in the sense that the usual work process is underway and “at the discussion stage, no points of view can be excluded.” So no threat to democracy.