Chamber for criticism

Boris Gryzlov threatens to take away the post of Chairman of the Federation Council from Sergei Mironov

The struggle between United Russia and A Just Russia is heating up more and more. At the end of last week, the leader of United Russia, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said that his fellow party members in St. Petersburg would deprive the leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, of the post of speaker of the upper house - the Federation Council. It is the St. Petersburg parliament, in which United Russia has a majority, that must soon decide who to entrust with representation in the Federation Council from the northern capital . If it is no longer Mr. Mironov, then, accordingly, he will not be the speaker of the upper house. Moreover, almost simultaneously, another blow was dealt to Mr. Mironov: the same legislative assembly of St. Petersburg introduced a bill to the State Duma changing the procedure for forming the Federation Council.

This bill provides that senators will be elected by residents of the regions from among candidates nominated by the legislative or executive authorities of the regions. In particular, the head of the local legislative assembly, faction or group of deputies will have the right to nominate candidates from regional parliaments. From the executive branch, candidates according to the bill will be nominated by the governor, and on an alternative basis, he must nominate at least two candidates.

Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, who himself has repeatedly spoken out in favor of electing senators , relatively recently proposed a similar option, but when United Russia seized the initiative, he backed down from it. Now Mr. Mironov, whom the bill of the deputies of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly may be deprived of his seat, reacted to the proposal of the deputies this way: “the initiative itself is absolutely correct,” and he shares the approach to electivity, but the bill itself contradicts federal legislation.

Nevertheless, the bill was officially registered in the State Duma and sent to Speaker Gryzlov, who must appoint a specialized committee to work on it. Although it is unknown whether the new idea will be translated into law, in any case, this bill, as well as the political attack personally on the leader of A Just Russia, is an obvious trump card in the hands of United Russia, which they decided to pull out of their sleeve, probably due to proximity elections to legislative assemblies of a number of regions, including St. Petersburg. After all, the fate of Mr. Mironov as speaker of the Senate directly depends on United Russia, which has a majority in the St. Petersburg legislative assembly. Most likely, the balance of power will continue after the elections on March 11 - at least for now there is no doubt about the victory of United Russia. In this case, it is United Russia that will decide who will represent St. Petersburg in the Federation Council.

Now this representative is Sergei Mironov, but prominent party members from United Russia have repeatedly hinted that they can find a replacement for him, and not at all from A Just Russia. For example, the first vice-speaker of the State Duma, a member of the United Russia faction, Oleg Morozov, spoke about the absurdity of the situation when the leader of a competing party would ask the St. Petersburg United Russia members to nominate him. Especially considering the harsh criticism that Mr. Mironov has recently subjected United Russia to.

However, until now these threats have been hypothetical. Now Mr. Gryzlov’s words sound serious. Moreover, his statement came just in time for the congress of A Just Russia, which will be held today in St. Petersburg. The State Duma speaker said that he no longer has the strength to tolerate attacks against his party from his colleague from the Federation Council.

Perhaps, despite all the harshness, the words of the main United Russia leader are intended only to demoralize the competitor before the elections. When United Russia members first began to threaten Mr. Mironov with depriving him of the post of Speaker of the Federation Council, many experts pointed out that only one person could make such a decision - the president.

Meanwhile, Boris Gryzlov made another statement that could cause moral damage to A Just Russia and strengthen the position of United Russia. According to him, after leaving the post of president, Vladimir Putin can lead United Russia. “We haven’t talked about this yet, everything has its time. We will have a congress in October, we will decide on the elections, we will decide on the candidate we will propose for the post of president. After this there will be all other conversations. Vladimir Putin will serve as acting president until May. At a minimum,” said Mr. Gryzlov. Presidential elections will be held in March 2008, but it will take another two months for the president to hand over to his successor, so the inauguration will take place in May. But the speaker’s latest clause “at a minimum” gives rise to a new wave of conversations on the topic of Putin’s third term.

Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA, Daria GUSEVA