Russian president confirms instructions for implementing address to parliament
Interfax
December 3, 2008
Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev has approved a list of instructions for the government, the Russian Security Council and the Presidential Administration to implement the president's address to the Federal Assembly on 5 November, Interfax news agency reported on 3 December, quoting the Kremlin press service.
The instructions concern reforming the political system, and developing the judicial system, Russian federalism, education, health care and pension provision, as well as international relations, the report said. Foreign policy - proposals for improving ties with USA under new administration
In the field of international relations, the president ordered the following:
to prepare a joint session of the Russian Security Council and the Russian State Council on Russian policy on the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS);
to submit proposals on further building Russian-US relations considering the results of the US presidential election;
to develop a range of measures to further promote the Russian initiative to draw up a European security treaty;
to prepare draft priority normative legal acts to lay the foundation to create an international financial centre in Russia; to submit proposals aimed at strengthening the Russian rouble as a currency for internationals settlements.
Parties and elections - to change electoral, party registration rules
Medvedev ordered that legal amendments be drawn up envisaging:
guarantees that political parties whose federal candidates' lists received from 5 to 7 per cent of the vote in a parliamentary election are represented in the State Duma;
submitting proposals on the candidacies of top officials (heads of top executive bodies of the state power) of the constituent parts of the Russian Federation by parties whose lists of candidates have received the largest number of votes at elections to bodies of state power in the federation's constituent parts;
cancelling the electoral deposit for elections at all levels, gradually reducing the number of voters' signatures required to support federal lists of candidates in the State Duma elections;
forming the Federation Council from people elected to the executive (representative) bodies of state power of the constituent parts of the Russian Federation and the representative bodies of municipalities, abolishing the length of the residency requirement for the election (appointment) of a member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation;
a gradual reduction of the minimum membership of a political party required for its registration and activities, the rotation of heads of the permanent collegiate ruling bodies of a political party, ensuring that the same person cannot hold such a leading post in a political party apparatus longer than the established term;
the possibility for representative agencies of local government to control more actively and, if necessary, to remove from their posts the heads of municipalities and local administrations or to recall them;
guarantees that the activities of Federation Council and State Duma members are covered by the state media;
Medvedev has also ordered that additional measures be taken to attract representatives from non-government organizations and the Public Chamber to the legislative process.
Court system - to speed up legal proceedings
As for the judicial system, Medvedev ordered that Russian legal amendments be prepared that envisage:
reducing the terms for considering civil cases in courts;
introducing additional liability for creating obstacles that lead to legal proceedings being dragged out;
establishing a mechanism for compensating damage inflicted on citizens while violating their rights for legal proceedings within a certain time frame, and the timely and fully fledged execution of court rulings.