Novye Izvestia: “They copy everything from us”
By Nadezhda Krasilova
A Just Russia party complained to the prime minister of being oppressed in the State Duma. On Tuesday Vladimir Putin held a meeting with deputies representing this parliamentary party. The MPs explained why they voted against the draft budget, complained of plagiarism in the State Duma and compared the effectiveness of their lawmaking with that of a steam engine.
Yesterday, deputies of A Just Russia waited for the prime minister in the White Hall of the Reception House of the Russian Government in Arbat Square. The deputies were willing to work and studied their notes carefully while waiting for the prime minister. Only Ivan Grachev did not sit down and instead stood by his chair, occasionally glancing from side to side, for the entire half an hour. "I'll have time to sit," he said, explaining his unusual behavior.
Vladimir Putin mostly talked about social initiatives with deputies of this parliamentary party. He told about demographic issues, the shortage of social institutions, and his plans to boost house construction. The prime minister did not miss the chance to bitterly remind A Just Russia that they did not support the draft budget in the first reading.
Nikolay Levichev, the parliamentary party leader, presented his colleagues, saying that two dozen out of the 38-deputy strong faction were newcomers to the parliament, while half of them have ample legislative experience. Two of them, Oksana Dmitrieva and Anatoly Greshnevikov, were elected to the State Duma for the fifth time.
Mr Levichev then figuratively compared his legislative activity to a steam engine. He calculated that the parliamentary party deputies had introduced 777 bills, but only 70 of them had become laws, that is only 10%. "As it turns out, the efficiency coefficient of legislative activity is equivalent to that of a steam engine," the deputy concluded, citing his research. He complained that "a so-called egoism of the majority is interfering" and that there is the real plagiarism flourishing in the State Duma.
"It's very offensive when the bills that we initiate are first filtered through various stages of compromise, and then denied under some obscure pretext, only to be introduced again, almost word for word, some time later, with a different label," the deputy said. Such was the fate, for instance, of drafts concerning the creation of favourable conditions for financing innovation activity and the indexation of funeral grants.
Vladimir Putin jotted it all down carefully, probably to use the information later during his scheduled meeting with United Russia deputies. Mr Levichev explained why his parliamentary party voted against the draft budget proposed by the government. He told the prime minister that the main drawback of the budget was that it "lacked new quality". At the mention of these words, Vladimir Putin started coughing. The Prime Minister was listening so carefully that even when Sergei Sobyanin, seated next to him, wanted to say something, he raised his finger to keep him silent. The encouraged deputy accused the budget of being unfit for the challenges of innovation development.
Vladimir Putin seemed to want to respond thoroughly to outspoken claims and asked Vice-Speaker Alexander Babakov to take the floor while he prepared to speak. Babakov suggested humanizing the justice system by converting some minor crimes from the category of criminal offences to that of administrative offences and setting up a tribunal in the CIS framework that would condemn and punish such people as Mikheil Saakashvili.
The prime minister agreed with this the idea of humanizing the justice system, but he did not respond to the idea of the tribunal. He encouraged the deputies in terms of plagiarism. "Some forms of plagiarism existed in ancient times," said the prime minister, smiling. "If this happens, authors should be pleased that their ideas are translating into life. However, it is of course important that the ideas come to life in accordance with the author's vision".
The prime minister did not agree that the budget was called outdated. "To claim that it is old is politically biased and not quite objective." Vladimir Putin reminded that for the first time considerable amounts were allocated for the construction of a new spaceport, the development of the GLONASS navigation system, fundamental science and nanotechnologies. He also noted that "money is always in short supply", and recommended to "put it to good use".
