#14 - JRL 9021 - JRL Home
Moscow Times
January 19, 2005
Public Chamber Bill Gets Bad Marks
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer

President Vladimir Putin's hopes for a public chamber that would help him feel the pulse of civil society could be hijacked by bureaucrats unless legislation is amended to ensure that federal authorities have no control over its staffing and budget policies, independent political experts warned Tuesday.

"We understand that the authorities want to form a public chamber whose structure is convenient for them," said Nina Belyayeva, a senior political expert with Moscow's Higher School of Economics who helped draft the bill on the chamber, which faces a second State Duma reading Thursday. "Our aim is to make holes and corridors in this structure that will allow grass-roots initiatives."

Putin first proposed setting up the chamber in the wake of the attack on Beslan in September, which left more than 330 people dead. He argued that the chamber should exercise civil control over law-enforcement bodies to ensure they combat terrorism effectively, as well as generate ideas for the Kremlin.

As part of his anti-terrorism package, Putin also proposed the scrapping of direct gubernatorial elections and an end to single-mandate races in Duma elections.

While these two measures have already been set in stone as laws, the bill on the public chamber can still be amended. This offers perhaps the last window of opportunity for civil society to engage decision-makers in a dialogue, Belyayeva and other experts told reporters Tuesday.

But only radical changes in the bill when it comes up for discussion Thursday will ensure the public chamber becomes an effective instrument of public scrutiny over the authorities, they said.

Among other things, the regions' representation in the chamber should be at least doubled to allow every region to send its envoy, said Alexander Nikitin, president of the Russian Political Science Association.

Also, the chamber should elect its own leadership, with members of the chamber being able to elect heads of committees, who would then elect the chamber's council and secretary, Nikitin said. As it stands now, the bill gives the president the right to nominate the chamber's council and its secretary.

Putin should also establish a coordination council of respected politicians, independent experts and officials from all over the country to brainstorm on how to ensure the chamber becomes a genuinely effective civic body, the experts said.

"Instead, we are told that civil society is being created, but meanwhile everything is being done by three bureaucrats behind close doors, who are rushing to meet an early deadline," said Grigory Vodolazov, vice president of the nongovernmental Academy of Political Science.

A total of 49 NGOs initially volunteered to send their proposals for the chamber to a Duma working group, but most pulled out after reading the Kremlin's version, Belyayeva said.

"After this, officials from the Justice Ministry and the siloviki replaced civil activists in the working group," Belyayeva said. "Then, anyone criticizing the bill or proposing amendments to it was asked: 'Why don't you support the president?'"

As a result the bill, which Putin sent to the Duma on Dec. 9 and passed in its first reading Dec. 22, envisions the chamber as a state-controlled organization rather than a civic institution, Vodolazov said.

Under the bill, the president will appoint 42 members, or one-third, of the chamber, who will then nominate another one-third from national NGOs. These 84 members will then choose the final one-third of the chamber from regional NGOs. No state officials or judges will be allowed to serve in the chamber, but members will be able to serve an unlimited number of two-year terms.

"Creation of the chamber by any branch of the authorities would contradict the president's public statements that the state should not create civil society institutions, but only secure their economic well-being," Vodolazov said.

Under the bill, a chancellor appointed by the prime minister will manage the chamber's finances. This would nip in the bud any attempt to make the chamber a truly independent watchdog, Vodolazov said.

"The government can easily cut short the maintenance of the chamber and effectively stall its activity. Now, what kind of control over the government can such a chamber carry out?" he said.

According to the bill, the chamber will have its own direct financing from the federal budget, and the state-run media will be obliged to give over a certain amount of airtime for coverage of the chamber's sessions.

The bill gives the chamber some powers similar to those of the Duma: Its members will have the right to attend any government meeting, request information from officials and control how the government implements its programs.

But the chamber will lack teeth in one crucial respect: Its resolutions will merely be recommendations.

While it is already clear that the chamber's functions will overlap with those of parliament, Putin still wants the chamber as an extra, direct link with society, Nikitin said. This way, Putin will not have to rely entirely on parliament, which represents the interests of certain interest groups rather than the public, he said.

Belyayeva agreed, noting that the Beslan tragedy had made it clear to Putin that there are side-effects to having a State Duma dominated by a pro-Kremlin majority, as such a chamber cannot provide feedback from the general public.

"I think Putin sincerely wanted an effective, independent public body that would both help him with expertise and also spur the development of civil society," she said. "But the people in his administration who drafted this law obviously do not believe in grassroots initiatives, and think that such a body will work only if it is created and run by administrative methods."

"It is like the old Soviet joke: We may start producing whatever we are told, but at the end of the production line we always get a Kalashnikov," Belyayeva said.