February 17, 2011, 21:46 Politics

The unemployed have eclipsed the terrorists

Medvedev will discuss unemployment with the leadership of parliamentary parties

Elizaveta Surnacheva The leaders of parliamentary parties go to Dmitry Medvedev. At a meeting in Sochi on Saturday, the parties will worry about unemployment and the upcoming March elections in the regions. Party leaders will not discuss terrorist attacks and nationalism.

On Saturday, February 19, the leaders of parliamentary parties will meet in Sochi with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The last time the president met with party leaders was in November, on the eve of the announcement of his address to the Federal Assembly. Since then, Russia has been rocked by two high-profile events: the nationalist pogroms on Manezhnaya Square in December 2010 and the terrorist attack in Domodedovo in January, which claimed 36 lives. On January 17, Medvedev discussed the events on Manezhnaya Square at a meeting with the leadership of both chambers of the Federal Assembly.

On Saturday, neither nationalism nor terrorism will be topics of discussion for the parties with the president: politicians will talk about unemployment and the upcoming elections in March. “The key topic of discussion at the meeting will be employment issues. We believe that solving the problems of unemployment and providing the population with jobs is one of the main priorities today,” State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov told reporters .

Unemployment and employment have become the main topics on Medvedev's agenda in the last two weeks: he visited the employment center in Strogino, held a meeting on employment issues and went to the employment center in Krasnoznamensk. Now the problem of unemployment will become one of the main ones at the meeting with the leadership of parliamentary parties.

The parties and the upcoming elections on March 13 will be discussed.

“That next tub of violations that the party in power is pouring on our heads, grabbing the vertical of officials with its hands and feet, is an old song, but, as they say, this is a song about the main thing,” said State Duma Vice Speaker from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Ivan Melnikov .

“We will not only give specific examples, but also try to convey to Dmitry Medvedev the idea that the regional authorities actually refuse to control the implementation of the president’s initiatives,” he comments. The head of the LDPR faction, Igor Lebedev , says that he will not complain to the president about violations during the campaign. “The topic of elections comes up constantly, we give specific proposals for changing legislation, all those measures that are taken at the initiative of the president take place as a result of our meetings, among other things,” says Lebedev.

According to him, the parties will probably touch upon the topic of updating the composition of the Central Election Commission , whose powers expire on March 27.

In turn, a source close to the leadership of A Just Russia told Gazeta.Ru that party leader Sergei Mironov will raise the issue of violating fair competition in regional elections.

In addition to unemployment and elections, the Communists are ready to talk with the president about the new education law and school standards. “The situation is fantastic: almost everyone—some openly, some behind the scenes—is against these initiatives. Students ridicule Andrei Fursenko , his authority is zero, and the ministry is going to attack,” says Melnikov.

The Liberal Democrats are going to talk with the president about the situation in the Middle East - the unrest in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and also recall the twentieth anniversary of the CIS this year. “There is still Russophobia in the countries of the former Soviet Union, the demolition of monuments, which is not good,” Lebedev is outraged.

Terrorism, if it comes up during discussions with the president, will be discussed in the context of the police law. According to Lebedev, the law is “insufficient”, and the LDPR made proposals for public control over the police and the admission of reserve officers to the police.