So they sat down...

On Wednesday, December 21, Okhotny Ryad will “elect” the speaker of the State Duma of the VI convocation, as well as approve his deputies and heads of Duma committees

Sergei Naryshkin, former head of the presidential administration, will replace Boris Gryzlov as speaker of the State Duma. The post of first vice-speaker will be taken by a deputy with 10 years of experience (1994-2004), president of the Russian Olympic Committee and former deputy prime minister Alexander Zhukov...

United Russia coordinated its leadership positions in the lower house with the country's leadership even before the expanded meeting of the party's general council last Saturday.

Sergei Naryshkin, former head of the presidential administration, will replace Boris Gryzlov as speaker of the State Duma. The post of first vice-speaker will be taken by a deputy with 10 years of experience (1994-2004), president of the Russian Olympic Committee and former deputy prime minister Alexander Zhukov. The “simple” vice-speakers from the party will be Andrei Vorobyov (he will also head the party faction instead of the same Gryzlov), Oleg Morozov, Sergey Neverov and Lyudmila Shvetsova. Three more of the same posts "just vice-speakers" will be received by representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, "A Just Russia" and the Liberal Democratic Party.

There are even more changes in the profile committees: it was decided to give the opposition 14 out of 29 (in the previous convocation it had only 6 out of 32). Of the 15 that "United Russia" kept for itself, only in three "old" chairmen retained their posts. These are Andrey Isaev (Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs), Pavel Krasheninnikov (on civil, criminal and procedural law) and Vladimir Pligin (on constitutional law).

Andrey Makarov will become the new chairman of the Committee on Budget and Taxes. Natalya Burykina will head the Committee on Financial Markets, Ildar Gabdrakhmanov - on the organization of the work of the State Duma, Stanislav Govorukhin (head of the campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Putin) - on culture. Viktor Kidyaev will lead the Committee on Federal Structure and Local Self-Government, former Deputy Minister of Transport Yevgeny Moskvichev, respectively, on transport. Nikolai Pankov will become the chairman of the Committee on Agricultural Policy, TV presenter Alexei Pushkov - on international affairs, Igor Rudensky - on economic policy, innovative development and entrepreneurship, Gadzhimet Safaraliev - on nationalities, and Irina Yarovaya - on security. Many of them are former deputy chairmen of the same or other Duma committees.

The situation with the party search for the chairman of the Committee on Education turned out to be funny. First, the General Council of United Russia proposed Vladimir Burmatov, the former deputy head of the Young Guard, who is now head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, for this post. Representatives of other parties and the media immediately called this candidacy “purely political”, hinting that Burmatov was being promoted by the former leader of the Young Guards, Senator Ruslan Gattarov. To a wide range of Internet users, Vladimir Burmatov became known to a greater extent thanks to the near-political scandals of the summer-autumn of 2010. Burmatov then accused Yuri Shevchuk of "looting" in the war in Chechnya, and also published a dubious photo report about how the leaders of the "Young Guard" allegedly put out fires in the Ryazan region.

However, on Monday evening, the United Russia faction decided to nominate Alexander Degtyarev, rector of the Ufa State Academy of Economics and Service, for the post of head of the Education Committee. Obviously, the decision was made just before the meeting of the faction at 17.00, because, answering the questions of Novaya Gazeta two hours before it began, Burmatov said: “I did not come from the street, I came from inside the system, having been a consumer of services for ten years, which I now have to produce. From the point of view of professional competence, I will build communication with colleagues on the committee, as I built them at the university ... I, like my other colleagues in the State Duma, had different political stages in my biography, I am not going to refuse any of them. I don't think it will be a hindrance."

And already on Tuesday, Vladimir Burmatov explained to Novaya Gazeta that his “replacement” by a more experienced Degtyarev was absolutely normal. “Now I have been offered the post of the first deputy chairman of the committee, consultations are ongoing,” Burmatov added.

Consultations continue with the parliamentary opposition. So far, the Communist Party is giving away six committees: on defense, on property, on construction and land relations, on CIS affairs, as well as on Far East affairs and on Siberian affairs. "Fair Russia" can get committees on science, energy, women, children and families, as well as housing and communal services. Four committees will go to the Liberal Democratic Party.
- Sports, tourism and youth - they were united in one committee, - vice-speaker Igor Lebedev lists. - An interesting committee: the Olympics in Sochi and preparations for the World Cup. Committee on public associations and public organizations. Health Committee. And (not yet decided) either the Committee on Foreign Relations or on CIS Affairs.

All parties will try to equally distribute their deputies to committees: it is necessary to be aware of the work on all bills.

Opponents are surprised at the personnel decisions of United Russia.

For example, Vadim Solovyov, the head of the legal service of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, believes that only Vladimir Pligin is in his place in the "legal" committees.

— Krasheninnikov? It would be possible to look for a stronger candidate, - the communist complains. - Such a committee should be headed by a professional practitioner. And Krasheninnikov is a pure water theorist. The Housing Code, which he dragged to the State Duma, completely threatened our housing and communal services. And Mr. Makarov is a middle-sized lawyer, and he probably understands economics the way I understand space.

Novaya Rossiya's source in United Russia, a deputy and a member of one of the committees assigned to the opposition, claims that there is no particular dissatisfaction with the forced concessions in the ranks of the winning party.

- For example, Admiral Komoyedov or Sergei Sobko (communists, they can head the Committees for Defense and Industry. - N. G. ) are professionals, patriots. These are respected, systemic people who have gone through the State Planning Commission, the Soviet school. It is hardly worth expecting populist things from them,” the interlocutor of Novaya Gazeta believes.

There is no particular excitement about the appointment of committee chairmen yet. The deputies still do not understand who is going where, and will start writing applications for joining this or that committee tomorrow, our source claims and advises paying attention to who will have the majority within the committees.

- Definitely the Duma will be more lively. And not only taking into account the amount of opposition, but also taking into account all the events that are taking place. Everyone understands this,” says the interlocutor of Novaya Gazeta.