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Legislative Branch Was Extremely Executive
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin recommended to the government yesterday to set to preparing for cooperation with the next State Duma without waiting for elections slated for December 2. “It is necessary to work over the bills already today,” the president said. But the cabinet will hardly have any problems with future State Duma should it resemble the current one.
Indeed, in the past four years, the lower house of Russia’s parliament was always ready to give the go-ahead to any initiative of the cabinet. The aftereffect is waning authority of the State Duma both for society at large and for other branches of power.
The working logic of the current State Duma became clear far back in December of 2003. Then, the United Russia was supported by 37.5 percent of votes and successfully lured independent parliament members to attain the majority of over 300 legislators. It easily filled the Duma committees by loyal members, extended to the better part of presidium and Boris Gryzlov of United Russia became the speaker.
The opposition represented by three factions – CPRF, Rodina and LDPR – failed not only to effect voting but even to materially interfere in lawmaking. The ruling United Russia was very disciplined – none of the bills proposed by president or the cabinet was ever turned down during four years of Duma’s term.
It is the sack of votes, one of the influential bureaucrats in the Kremlin commented on continuous readiness of the parliament members to yield to authorities.
As to forthcoming elections, the polls show that United Russia will enjoy the support of majority again. The alarming news is that the Russians trust no party actually. No more than 2 percent of the nation thinks the parties exert any influence, just 25 percent to 27 percent approves of the State Duma work, and 46 percent disapproves of it.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 20, 2007
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