MPs decide to complicate things for Government
Members of Parliament want to hear the annual Government report in two stages in April. First, the State Duma will take two weeks to consider the written report, and then will hear Prime Minister Vladimir Putin deliver it.
Yesterday the State Duma Council discussed draft amendments to the house's statute regarding the procedure for the Government's reports. The house will adopt them upon the end of the regional week, on February 11 or 13, and will immediately start preparing for the Government's first report.
The Government is to submit a written report to the State Duma by April 1, said Vladimir Aseyev, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Regulations and Procedure. A month before that, the deputies will send their questions to the Government, which the Cabinet will use to prepare its report.
The questions will be collected by the regulations committee, while the State Duma Council and the lower house will decide at a plenary meeting which of them to forward to the Government.
After the Government sends its report to the State Duma, the house's council will take two weeks to consider it and to announce the date for the public report, possibly in mid-April. Only the Prime Minister can deliver it in accordance with the amendments.
The house's parties will have the right to ask the Prime Minister two or three additional questions each. The duration of the speech and the possibility to adopt a resolution assessing the Government's work and issuing recommendations to it will be decided every year "depending on the socio-economic situation in the country," Aseyev said.
In his words, the draft amendments have not yet been approved, but he thinks this would be the most likely procedure.
Oleg Morozov, First Deputy Speaker, yesterday confirmed that the State Duma believed the report should be delivered by the Prime Minister. He said the Government had not argued the point. However, the Government did not comment on that issue.
Oksana Dmitriyeva, a member of a Just Russia party, said the issue contained a dilemma. According to the Constitution, the State Duma may officially assess the Government's work only in a legally binding form, as confidence and non-confidence.
Today the State Duma will hold a hearing on the crisis, with several ministers expected to report (see insert). The opposition parties - the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party - plan to criticise the Government's methods of combating the crisis and demand the resignation of Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.
Even the United Russia party planned to ask unpleasant questions, for example, on the failure to fulfil Mr Putin's decision to transport Russian-made cars to the Far East. A source in the party said the hearing was also designed to improve the prestige of the State Duma, which has recently plummeted.
"It will be a dress rehearsal before Vladimir Putin delivers his speech," Dmitriyeva said.
First report
First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will deliver a report in the State Duma today. Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin, Minister of Industry Viktor Khristenko, Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, and Central Bank Chairman Sergei Ignatyev will answer questions.
By Natalia Kostenko