| United Russia decided to restore order with the vice-speakers The Presidium of the Duma faction “United Russia” yesterday decided to return to the leadership structure of the State Duma the post of another first vice-speaker, which will be occupied by Oleg Morozov. It is already known that he will be responsible for legislative work. So far, Lyubov Sliska remains the only first vice-speaker of the State Duma. She has held this post alone since Alexander Zhukov, who briefly served as first deputy speaker, went to work in the government.
On the sidelines of the Duma, rumors immediately spread that Ms. Sliska would be deprived of some of her powers, formally leaving her in office, but the chairman of the Committee on Regulations and Organization of Work of the State Duma, Oleg Kovalev, told a Vremya Novostey correspondent that nothing like that would happen. “Morozov was already de facto fulfilling the powers of the first deputy chairman of the Duma, which remained after Zhukov left. In addition, now he will have an additional burden of conducting meetings,” Mr. Kovalev said.
United Russia decided to restore order with the vice-speakers after the seat of Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Georgy Boos, who on September 16 was vested with the powers of the governor of the Kaliningrad region, became vacant. First Deputy Leader of the faction Yuri Volkov will be recommended in his place. Taking this opportunity, United Russia decided to restore order in principle with the vice-speakers and conducted an audit of the distribution of these posts after Alexander Zhukov left the government.
While the Duma majority is redistributing the posts of vice-speakers, of which as many as seven are currently assigned to United Russia, Dmitry Rogozin is not very successful in trying to win the deputy chairman position for his Rodina faction. Previously, the vice-speaker from Rodina was Sergei Baburin. However, after he, together with a group of comrades, formed a new faction called “Motherland” (“People’s Will” - SEPR), the Rogozins were left without their own deputy chairman of the Duma. And therefore, without a vote at the Duma Council, in which, in accordance with the regulations, all faction leaders and vice-speakers take part. Immediately after the Rodina split, Rogozina decided to delegate Alexander Babakov, who is also known as the party’s shadow sponsor, to this post. However, the parliamentary majority refused to approve him as deputy speaker. Then Sergei Glazyev, who became the leader of the faction for the period of the autumn session (after the split, the Rogozins introduced a mechanism of faction co-chairs who would “steer” in turns), proposed nominating Rogozin himself to this post.
Now the solution to this issue is pending. “The draft resolution on Rogozin has long been in the legal department of the State Duma. Officially they mumble something in response to us, but unofficially they say that they are waiting for instructions from the leadership of United Russia,” Sergei Butin, head of the press service of the Rodina faction, told a Vremya Novostei correspondent. - Of course, this is an infringement of the rights of our faction, which is consistently in opposition to United Russia. It must be said that it was United Russia that made the decision to split Rodina, thus creating a problem.”
The head of the Rodina faction, Sergei Glazyev, in a conversation with journalists, also noted that “the Duma majority tailors the entire structure of the State Duma to suit itself. The current parliament is something like a political club of United Russia. He complained that the current composition of the Duma differs from the previous one in a much larger composition of various kinds of senior positions, which are mainly occupied by representatives of the party in power.
At the same time, Oleg Kovalev argues that the State Duma regulations do not at all provide for the mandatory presence of the post of vice-speaker for each faction. According to him, the number of vice-speakers is determined at the beginning of the convocation, and only then the chamber votes for them. And deputies do not at all have to be guided by the desire not to deprive any faction of the post. “At the beginning of the convocation there were certain political agreements, according to which each opposition faction was given one post of vice-speaker, and United Russia was given a proportional position,” Mr. Kovalev told a Vremya Novostei correspondent. - However, then Rodina began to fragment. Rogozin demands that he be given the additional post of vice-speaker, but this does not suit other opposition factions, for example the Liberal Democratic Party. They ask why they should have two votes on the Duma Council, while representatives of Rodina, who passed in the Duma elections with a lower result, have four?”
At the same time, the head of the Rules Committee allows for a scenario in which the Rogozins will still receive the post of vice-speaker. However, he is convinced that the candidacy for this post should be approved by the supreme council of the Rodina bloc, which has virtually ceased to exist. Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA |
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