#13 - JRL 8004
Russian ruling party to control all parliamentary committees
Interfax
January 6, 2003

The pro-Putin One Russia party is to chair every committee in the newly-elected State Duma and provide all the first deputy chairs as well, Interfax news agency reported, quoting a One Russia source. Opposition parties were to have headed some committees under a quota system but had indicated they were "unwilling to assume responsibility". The following is the text of a report by Russian news agency Interfax:

Moscow, 6 January: All of the State Duma committees are to be chaired by representatives of the One Russia party.

"The opposition, that is the Communist Party, Liberal Democratic Party and Motherland factions, will not get a single committee chairmanship; also, the committees' first deputies will also be from One Russia," Interfax learnt from sources in the Duma majority today.

The head of the provisional Duma commission for procedure and organization of Duma work, Oleg Kovalev (of the One Russia faction), virtually confirmed this information for Interfax today.

"The final decision on this issue, that is on the distribution of the leading posts, will be taken at the State Duma session on 16 January, but we are really ready to assume all responsibility for the work of the chamber," he said.

Kovalev noted that originally it had been proposed to share out the leading posts in the committees on a quota principle, that is, the Communist Party, Liberal Democratic Party and Motherland factions could have claimed the chairmanship of two or three committees. However, Kovalev stressed, statements made primarily by the left-wing opposition show that its representatives do not wish to assume responsibility. Moreover they could end up dissatisfied with the posts offered to them. "This means that the personnel issue could have been used by the Communists in the future in their political game," Kovalev said.

"We understand that, whatever happens, responsibility for all that occurs in the State Duma will be with One Russia, because it is in a majority there, and thus possesses the deciding vote," Kovalev said.

Kovalev drew attention to the fact that the number of leading posts in the new Duma had been reduced due to the decision taken earlier enabling an individual to occupy the post of head of a political association and Duma chairman at the same time.

"In general, the first structural alterations already clearly show that the stress is now moving on to strengthening the role of the deputy speakers as people who are called on to guarantee all the main areas of parliamentary activity. In addition, at the same time the role of the leaders of political associations is diminished because it should not dominate the legislative process," Kovalev said.

As far as the structure of the committees is concerned, he did not rule out that after the presidential election it could undergo some changes, because two factors will then come into play: a new government with a renewed structure will appear, and a presidential decree will confirm the categories of normative legal acts. At the moment, there is no sense in making alterations to the structure or number of Duma committees, Kovalev said.

The agency's sources confirm that virtually all of the future heads of committees have been decided. The following chairmen have been proposed to head the committees: Vladislav Reznik for the Budget and Taxes Committee, Viktor Zavarzin for the [Security and] Defence [Issues] Committee, Vladimir Vasilyev for the Security Committee, Vladimir Katrenko for the Power Engineering, Transport and Communications Committee, Konstantin Kosachev for the International Affairs Committee, Valeriy Komissarov for the Information Policy Committee, Viktor Pleskachevskiy for the Property Committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov for the Legislation Committee, and Andrey Isayev for the Labour, Social Policy [and Veterans' Affairs] Committee.

As far as the Credit Organizations and Financial Markets Committee is concerned, one of the main committees, the agency's sources confirm that the head of the National Reserve Bank, Aleksandr Lebedev, who got through to the State Duma on the Motherland's federal list, is claiming its chairmanship, although he has decided not to join the Motherland faction, but instead applied to join the One Russia faction. However, the chairmanship of this committee has not been decided yet.