Fuel for discussion

The Duma was busy with gasoline prices and settling personal scores

Yesterday, Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko spoke at the State Duma during the government hour. Events in Moscow made his visit to the lower house of parliament could not have been more appropriate.

When asked whether there could be a shortage of electricity in Russia, Mr. Khristenko replied that the critical point would come in 2010. “This is due to the obsolescence and breakdown of existing capacities and the rather slow commissioning of new ones,” the minister said. To minimize such risks, he continues to insist on investing in generating capacity.

There were no sensations in the “fuel” component of the minister’s speech (Mr. Khristenko was invited to discuss two issues at once - the situation in the country’s fuel supply and the situation in the electric power industry). The minister promised that the government would not act as a “caster” of oil prices and would not order prices for petroleum products to “stand or be lower.” He explained this by saying that the adoption of administrative measures regarding prices, on the contrary, leads to a price surge and unbalances the market, as exemplified by the gasoline crisis in Ukraine.

The minister categorically ruled out the possibility of a motor fuel shortage in the country. The seasonal jump in prices for petroleum products occurs against the background of an increase in their production compared to last year, an increase in supplies and an increase in reserves, the official believes. “In general, if you look at the reasons for the rise in prices for oil and petroleum products, one of the main factors is the taxation of the oil sector,” said Mr. Khristenko and read out a list of measures that, in his opinion, can optimize taxes on the oil industry .

The measures, however, are far from new; they have been talked about for several years. For example, keep the mineral extraction tax tied to world oil prices only for oil exports, and for domestic supplies introduce a specific mineral extraction tax rate (which will be calculated in rubles per ton of extracted raw materials), indexing it to the rate of inflation. Mr. Khristenko also supported the idea of ​​considering the seasonal nature of establishing export duties on petroleum products. True, all these measures, the minister said, the government can still propose as part of a “discussion,” since it would be quite problematic to include them in next year’s budget, which is already being drawn up now.

Yesterday the Duma did not limit itself to discussing gasoline prices and future accidents in the electric power industry. The Chamber relieved the former Speaker of the State Duma, independent deputy Gennady Seleznev from the post of deputy co-chairman of the interparliamentary group (the chairmen of the group are State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov and Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov). Now United Russia deputy Alexander Kozlovsky has been approved for this post. After the vote, Mr. Seleznev said that he did not agree with such a hasty decision of the chamber, without any discussion. In addition, he intends to sue the chairman of the Committee on Regulations and Organization of Work of the State Duma Oleg Kovalev for his “slanderous statements” if he does not apologize to him.

Mr. Kovalev was one of nine United Russia deputies who took the initiative to relieve Gennady Seleznev from the post of deputy co-chairman of the interparliamentary group. He accused Mr. Seleznev of using the post “for his own trips abroad for political purposes.” Gennady Seleznev claims that over the past year he has not gone on business trips abroad at all. The ex-speaker also told reporters that he talked about this issue with Boris Gryzlov, and he directly told him: “You are not from our party, but it would be more convenient for me to work with a fellow party member.” At the same time, Mr. Seleznev promised that he would not join United Russia “never and under any circumstances.”

Deputies also yesterday adopted a resolution on the formation of working groups to implement the provisions of the address of the Russian President to the Federal Assembly. Five such groups will be created. One of them will develop a bill aimed at increasing the efficiency of attracting capital to the Russian economy through a simplified procedure for declaring citizens’ funds. This group will be headed by Vladislav Reznik, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Credit Institutions and Financial Markets. Another group, led by the chairman of the Committee on Labor and Social Policy, Andrei Isaev, will develop proposals to increase wages in the public sector. The third group will deal with a very popular topic recently - the development of a bill aimed at increasing the role of parties in the country's political system. Other groups will draft a bill regarding the procedure for parliamentary investigations and a law to give the Russian Civic Chamber additional powers to ensure civil control over the media's compliance with the principles of freedom of speech. That is, the functions of a censor.

Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA, Irina SKLYAROVA