"Moskovsky Komsomolets": “CALLING PUTIN TO ACCOUNT”
Vladimir Putin is today to report on the Government's performance during the year to the State Duma for the first time ever
Can you imagine Vladimir Putin reporting to the deputies? Can you imagine our deputies badgering the Prime Minister with probing questions about why the country is slowly but steadily sinking in the quagmire of the crisis? You cannot? And rightly so. It will never happen.
The amendment that makes it binding for the Prime Minister to show up in Parliament once a year was introduced in the Constitution at the end of last year at the behest of President Dmitry Medvedev along with amendments that extended the presidential term to 6 years and those of deputies to 5 years.
In the countries where there is some kind of separation between the legislative and executive branches no special entries in the Constitution are required to make the head of Government report to Parliament. In this country, judging from how the historic event was being prepared, no real report is likely even if the Constitution has a corresponding provision.
"A report" means an analysis of what has and has not been accomplished, a "post-mortem" of why some things have worked and some haven't. Today's agenda of the Duma meeting, due to start at 12 p.m., includes not only the "report", but also a discussion of the Government's anti-crisis programme, adoption in the first reading of the 2009 budget, and adoption in the first reading of the draft budgets of the Pension Fund, the Social Insurance Fund and the Mandatory Medical Insurance Fund. All lumped together. That means that the State Duma will either revert to the long-forgotten practice of working far into the night or will rush through all the items ("hurry, hurry"), including the report. Considering the current political practice, the latter is more likely.
The Government has warned in advance that the Prime Minister would deliver a "conceptual speech". Such speeches are delivered when planning for the future and not when reporting on what has been done. There are signs that the Duma will not put a time limit on Mr Putin's speech. However, the number of questions from the deputies will be limited to three from each parliamentary party. What is more, by tradition, the questions have been agreed with the Government in advance.
The parliamentary parties had earlier sent to the Prime Minister the questions to which they would like to hear answers in his report. But no one has said that the Prime Minister must answer them. He may answer them if he feels like it. So, the political implications of today's event are not that Parliament is finally exercising its right to monitor the Government but that the Putin Government is not going to bear the sole responsibility for fighting the crisis. By approving the anti-crisis plan and the anti-crisis budget Parliament will share that responsibility with the executive branch.
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Will today's report be a formality or will the deputies ask some questions that will embarrass Mr Putin? Will there be criticism from the floor? Will calls be made for a Government reshuffle? Several political analysts have shared their forecasts with MK.
Mikhail Vinogradov, President of the St Petersburg Policy Fund:
At least the KPRF will voice its criticism. The Communists are unhappy that they have practically no regional Governors, and they see this as cause for bargaining. The only question is how tough the bargaining would be.
All the parties will criticise individual Cabinet members, albeit United Russia is unlikely to name them. Anyway, I think that television will broadcast only Mr Putin's report and not the critical remarks by deputies. The report could have been fixed for any date, but this particular time has been chosen because the Government wants to react promptly to some setbacks in March, as witnessed by the results of the municipal elections, by Mr Putin's difficult visit to Novokuznetsk and a wave of protest rallies. I do not rule out that the report will provide a pretext (but not the cause) for a Cabinet reshuffle.
Stanislav Belkovsky, President of the National Strategy Institute:
As far as I understand, Mr Putin's plan is to turn the report into a political manifesto of consolidation of political forces to overcome the crisis. Today he would like to be seen not as the head of Government who has to admit numerous problems and failures, but as a political figure who has the answers. So I do not expect too much criticism or self-criticism. It is not by chance that Mr Putin had a preliminary meeting with all the parliamentary parties while the report was being prepared, and even went through the motions of taking their proposals and wishes into account. Now it would not be proper for them to criticise the programme which includes their own ideas.
It will be less a report than a call to rally around Putin's Government. Mr Putin will argue that the crisis in Russia is not so bad, that inflation and unemployment are not too high and the consequences for the economy are not irreversible. Not that he will be hypocritical, he really thinks so. Mr Putin is not the best informed person as regards the state of the Russian economy. His deputies and aides try to shield him from excessive information not to distress him, which makes it easier for him to remain an optimist.
I do not rule out that after the report some changes in the Government will take place, but there will be no radical reform. Vladimir Putin is chary of personnel changes and the decade that he has been at the helm passed under the tacit slogan "do not rock the boat", i.e. do not risk upsetting the status quo unless it guarantees improvement a hundred percent.
