#6
BBC Monitoring
Russian Federation Council's new speaker marks
"end of Yeltsin era"
Source: NTV, Moscow, in Russian 0900 gmt 5 Dec 01
[Presenter] This morning a change of power took place in Russia's upper parliamentary chamber. The Federation Council agreed to Yegor Stroyev's request to end his powers as speaker. The 48-year-old Sergey Mironov, representative from the St Petersburg legislative assembly, was elected as the new head of the upper chamber. We now have a live linkup with our correspondent Maksim Rogalenkov. Maksim, do give us some more detailed information about how the voting went, and what is going on at the Federation Council right now.
[Correspondent] The election of the new chairman of the Federation Council proceeded without extremes, as was expected. Stroyev himself said in his opening words that he would like it to happen without superfluous questions, and basically, that's how it was, it was clear that the voting would be by an absolute majority, Stroyev really was released, Mironov was elected chairman, and literally within twenty minutes or so, Vladimir Putin appeared in the Federation Council chamber. The president congratulated Yegor Stroyev on his excellent work, thanked him, and although, he said, the law forbids people to be members of the Federation Council at the same time as a governor, in this case he was sincerely sorry. Let's hear Putin
[Putin, at rostrum] I'll let you into a little state secret: about two months ago, I was talking to Yegor Semenovich about this, and I asked him to remain in the post of chairman of the Federation Council. But he chose Orel Region for himself.
[Correspondent] Putin then presented Stroyev with an award - For Services to the Fatherland, First Class, after which Stroyev, as is the custom, Stroyev addressed a reply to Putin and the Federation Council. You know, many members of the federation [council], especially those left from its old composition, say this is a symbol of the end of an era, even, one might say, the Yeltsin era. And Stroyev said that it had managed to stand up to pressure from the old composition, both from below and from above, and that's why it was created in the form in which it used to exist. Let's hear Stroyev
[Stroyev at rostrum, wearing red sash and with bouquet of flowers in front of him, capitoned "Governor of Orel Region"] It was formed at a transitional stage, when the whole of the power elite used to have sessions in this hall. And it was only this quality that made it possible for this parliament, this senate to withstand all the upheavals going on in society...
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