Translated material
Happy new deadline!
For the first time, Russia has a fifth Duma
“Happy new term to you! - communist deputy Nikolai Kharitonov congratulated his faction colleagues yesterday, half-jokingly and half-gloomily. “We went to prison again, the sixth in a row.” In fact, the plenary session that took place yesterday on Okhotny Ryad was the first in the work of the State Duma of the fifth convocation , and Mr. Kharitonov added to his solid Duma credentials his experience as a deputy of the Supreme Council. More than half of the newly elected parliamentarians do not have such experience: out of 450 people, 231 tried out soft parliamentary seats for the first time yesterday. However, a total of 309 have experience working in legislative assemblies at various levels, so there are not that many newcomers to power. And the fact that the fifth convocation is generally symbolic, which the leader of United Russia, Boris Gryzlov, did not fail to announce immediately after his re-election as speaker of the lower house. “We are overcoming a certain psychological barrier,” he said. — The first Russian Duma worked for four convocations, and now it is already the fifth. This is a step forward. Russia is developing steadily, to the envy of other countries.”Before the election of the speaker, the meeting was traditionally chaired by the oldest deputy in age - Nobel Prize laureate Zhores Alferov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation). In his speech, he called the main issue of our time “the problem of sustainable development,” the essence of which he immediately demonstrated with the help of a visual metaphor - a glass of champagne. “The distribution of material wealth in the world is similar to the shape of a glass: the top, wide part is 87% of income, which belongs to the richest 10% of people, and the thin stem is 1.4%, which belongs to the poorest. We need to solve this problem: break the glass!” - proclaimed Comrade Alferov. After which he broke the wine glass with a festive New Year's ringing.
This was the only non-trivial move at yesterday's meeting; all other issues were apparently resolved quickly and without unnecessary debate. Chairman of the Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov, who arrived in the Duma, once again recalled the results of the elections on December 2 . And Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov (he represented the executive branch, since neither President Vladimir Putin, who headed the Duma list of United Russia in the elections, nor his successor Dmitry Medvedev, the presidential candidate from the party in power, appeared in the Duma yesterday), admonishing the people's representatives, he directly made it clear what was expected of them. Total loyalty. “The previous State Duma supported the government on key initiatives. I have no doubt that this will continue to be the case,” said Mr. Zubkov. There really is no doubt about this, since the United Russia party, which in previous convocations has confirmed its readiness to vote for any government initiatives, owns a controlling stake of 315 mandates.
This fact could be fully felt when the procedure for electing the speaker began: the temporary commission on regulations did not even receive any proposals other than the candidacy of Boris Gryzlov. The leader of the LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, saw such a lack of alternative as a violation of the regulations and tried to be indignant, but his colleagues did not listen to him. Mr. Gryzlov will have ten deputies in his new old position, of which only one is the first vice-speaker - Oleg Morozov, who held this position in the previous convocation. Lyubov Sliska will lose the status of first deputy speaker and will be a simple deputy to her party boss. In addition, Mr. Gryzlov will be replaced by Yuri Volkov, Vyacheslav Volodin, former deputy head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Nadezhda Gerasimova, Olympic speed skating champion Svetlana Zhurova and Valery Yazev, considered in the Duma the main lobbyist for Gazprom’s interests. Also, the post of Deputy Chairman of the State Duma will be given to Ivan Melnikov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Alexander Babakov (A Just Russia).
The approval of these candidates went quite smoothly, but the appointment of the chairmen of the Duma committees was not without a small scandal, which even preliminary approvals on the sidelines could not prevent.
Parliamentarians increased the number of committees in the new convocation compared to the previous one from 29 to 32, with six of them going to the opposition Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia - two committees per faction (in the previous convocation, all committees were headed by United Russia members). To avoid discussing each candidate, United Russia submitted the candidacies of all chairmen to a batch vote within the framework of one resolution. However, deputies tried to challenge some proposals. First, Ruslan Gostev (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) asked “why Vladislav Tretyak was punished.” In the last Duma, United Russia member Mr. Tretyak, a three-time Olympic champion in hockey, headed the committee on physical education and sports, and now this post has been given to Olympic champion figure skater Anton Sikharulidze. Boris Gryzlov explained that Mr. Tretyak had taken the position of Chairman of the Hockey Federation and, in connection with this, would be very busy. Then the obstinate deputies stood up for another noble United Russia member - singer Joseph Kobzon. Previously, he headed the Culture Committee for two convocations in a row, which in the new convocation was given to the unknown Grigory Ivliev, the former head of the Duma legal department. Mr. Gryzlov explained this decision by the need to improve the legislative framework in the field of culture, in particular so that this area “is not financed on a residual basis.”
Many deputies found this explanation unconvincing. “Kobzon is the property of the people, the nation, return him to the committee!” - demanded Nikolai Kharitonov. And a member of United Russia, film director Stanislav Govorukhin, said that in previous years deputies achieved outstanding cultural success precisely thanks to the authority of Mr. Kobzon. “The cries of society are not helping, we were not consulted,” the director was indignant. - This greatly impacts the authority of United Russia. “They wanted to make a healthy party, but it turns out to be the CPSU again,” the director made the obvious conclusion to the applause of parliamentarians from other parties. At this stage, Vladimir Zhirinovsky entered the debate, declaring that “it is unacceptable to interfere in internal faction affairs”: “It is indecent when at the first meeting a deputy begins to shake up his rights!” - Mr. Zhirinovsky shortened Mr. Govorukhin. Communist Alevtina Aparina proposed putting Mr. Ivliev's candidacy to a separate vote, but United Russia did not give in - this would have risked violating other behind-the-scenes agreements. As a result, Mr. Ivliev became the head of the culture committee, and the offended Stanislav Govorukhin and Joseph Kobzon demonstratively signed up for the information policy committee.
The communists who defended Mr. Kobzon faced another blow in the struggle for positions. Previously, it was believed that they would receive a newly created committee on science and high technology, the leadership of which the Zyuganovites were going to entrust to Zhores Alferov. However, at the last moment, science was given to A Just Russia, which put Valery Chereshnev at the head of the committee . Meanwhile, it was precisely this committee that the Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov himself signed up for as “the most promising.” But Vladimir Zhirinovsky sent his steps to the committee on agrarian issues. “I will stay there until I die, I will work to ensure that we have good food in our country,” he said. Deputies were also informed that the second committee on women, family and children that A Just Russia inherited was headed not by Svetlana Goryacheva, as previously reported, but by Elena Mizulina.
Having divided committees and posts, the people's representatives dispersed to reconvene after the New Year holidays. As Boris Gryzlov told reporters, by January 11, the Duma plans to receive from the government a law on increasing pensions and salaries for public sector employees from February 1.