Natalya Kostenko
Putin will deliver his address at the usual time though in a different capacity
The State Duma is changing its format of communication with officials. The heads of state-owned corporations will now also be invited to answer questions during Government Hours. In a departure from tradition, the Prime Minister will address Parliament in the spring.
Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov has given the United Russia Rules Committee in Parliament until the end of January to prepare the regulations on the holding of the annual government report to Parliament. The first report of the Putin Government to the State Duma reviewing the work in 2008 is tentatively scheduled for late March-early April, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Rules Committee Vladimir Aseyev told Vedomosti.
The report is envisaged by amendments to the Constitution passed by the State Duma at the end of the year on the President's recommendations. According to Mr Aseyev, the exact date will be fixed in the regulations being prepared simultaneously by the State Duma and the Government. It is still unclear whether the deputies will simply hear the report or pass binding resolutions on it. It is also unclear whether Putin will deliver the report in person or simply send it to the Duma. The issue is being hammered out with the Government, because the rules of both structures must include similar amendments, Mr Aseyev noted. A government source says that the format and time of the annual report would be determined a little later.
Communist Valery Rashkin, a member of the Rules Committee, fears that the report will turn into a formal exercise, just like the Presidential Address: Putin would come to the podium, deliver his report, and go away. "That does not suit us; our party will propose that because of the rapid pace of the crisis, he should report more than once a year and the Duma should have the right to hold a no-confidence vote on inefficient ministers," Mr Rashkin asserted.
Putin's speech to Parliament in May of last year, when he was confirmed as Prime Minister, was dubbed a "mini-address" by deputies, and sources in the Presidential Executive Office said that it was because of Putin's speech that President Dmitry Medvedev's Address was postponed until the autumn. If Putin's spring address to the deputies and Medvedev's autumn address become traditions, it would give additional merit to the dual power schematic, says political analyst Dmitry Badovsky, although it actually makes sense in the context of the crisis: the more the authorities explain their actions, the better.
In connection with the crisis, the officials responsible for economics - Alexei Kudrin, Igor Shuvalov, and Viktor Khirstenko - will hold an extra day-long meeting with the deputies in January, Mr Aseyev said.
Beginning this year, deputies decided to have meetings with Ministers twice as frequently. The Presidium of United Russia in Parliament yesterday backed the suggestion made by Vladimir Pligin, Chairman of the Constitutional Committee, to invite the heads of state-owned corporations to take part in Government Hours.
These corporations are largely financed out of the state budget, Deputy Speaker Svetlana Zhurova explained. Some of them will face the Duma as early as February, Mr Aseyev confirmed. That initiative did not come as a surprise for Sergei Novikov, the press secretary of Rosatom: "Under the Law On the State Corporation, Rosatom has to report to Parliament every six months. Every six months we send a report, and once a year, Director-General Sergei Kiriyenko comes to the State Duma.
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Tighten control
The State Duma and the Audit Chamber intend to cooperate more closely this year, notably in setting up a system to monitor the implementation of anti-crisis measures, the Audit Chamber's Information Department announced after its Chairman, Sergei Stepashin, met with Boris Gryzlov.