Free Republic

MOSCOW - In the near future, the State Duma will limit some of the existing privileges of the deputies. The respective amendments to the law on the status of MPs have been suggested. Oleg Kovalyov, chairman of the committee for parliamentary procedures, told reporters yesterday that the new bill had already been approved by the government, and it would soon be submitted to the lower house and debated by the lawmakers. According to Kovalyov, it is planned to introduce some limits for the deputies relating to the cost of housing, transport and telecommunication services. Specifically, the deputies will have to...

Pianist punished for prison song Chopin 'was not conducive to Russian MPs' digestion' The Russian parliament's lower chamber, the Duma, has barred a pianist from performing in the canteen after she played a tune with criminal undertones. Pianist Olga Skiba was initially hired to delight MPs with the sounds of Mozart and Chopin - but was flooded with requests for popular melodies. She was suspended for three weeks after she played the 80-year-old tune Murka. It tells a story of a gangster killing his girlfriend for being an undercover agent of the Bolshevik secret police. Murka is considered a classic...

MOSCOW, January 17 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian Communist party on Monday ordered its faction in the State Duma to initiate a vote of no-confidence in the government. The decision was approved by the party’s leadership at its meeting behind closed doors where the monetisation of in-kind benefits was discussed. The party is also dissatisfied with the housing and utility, education, and healthcare reforms. In order to include the issue in the agenda of a plenary session of the lower house of parliament, it needs the support of at least 90 deputies. The Motherland and Liberal Democratic factions have already offered...

RBC, 22.10.2004, Moscow 19:13:43.The lower house of Russian parliament has recognized the recent parliamentary elections and a referendum in Belarus as open and democratic. Russian deputies have adopted a corresponding statement today prepared by lawmakers who observed the voting. The State Duma said in its statement that negative assessments of the elections by some US and European politicians as well as threats to impose discriminatory measures could be regarded as attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of the independent state and violation of the norms of international law.

...After NTV fell to the Kremlin, many journalists censored themselves. Regional governors hailed Monday's constitutional overhaul, well aware that their welfare (financial as much as political) depends on Mr. Putin now.... The passive response to Mr. Putin's restoration makes many people pessimistic about Russian civil society.... A rise in capital flight suggests anxiety about the direction of Kremlin policy. Exchange kiosks reported heavy buying of dollars, the safe currency, after Mr. Putin's speech Monday. Repealing the Yeltsin-era decentralization, which managed to keep Russia unified after 1991, will certainly invite problems in months to come from frustrated regions far from Moscow...

...It should be clear by now that the Russian leader will use any pretext to steadily restore one man -- or single party -- rule in Russia. Opposition politicians, businessmen and journalists hounded into silence, or worse, have learned this the hard way.... Assuming (safely) that Mr. Putin gets his way, Russia would do away with freely elected regional governors, the last bastion of power beyond the Kremlin's direct control. Regional assemblies, now in the hands of parties allied with Mr. Putin, will pick governors with Kremlin guidance. Mr. Putin also proposes to cancel the direct vote for half the...

MOSCOW, Sept. 13 - President Vladimir V. Putin ordered a stunning overhaul of Russia's political system on Monday in what he called an effort to unite the country against terrorism. If enacted, as expected, the proposals would strengthen his already pervasive control over the legislative branch and regional governments. Mr. Putin, meeting in special session with cabinet ministers and regional government leaders, outlined what would be the most sweeping political overhaul - and his most striking single step to consolidate power - in Russia in more than a decade. Critics immediately said it would violate the Constitution and stifle what...

Bush has a fork in him. Look at the polls. You see them. What makes you think it's gonna get any better for the appointed one? Only the dedicated neo-cons support this clown. Your boy is toast. I hope you guys won't do anything rash after he loses horribly on November 2. President Kerry will make this country much better. Just keep that in mind and you'll be fine. Better yet, jump on the Kerry bandwagon and support a return to peace and prosperity. Come on guys, I'm on your side.

MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax) - The State Duma has passed in the first reading a bill that would amend the Criminal Code so that convicted terrorists can be punished with life imprisonment. In a 432-0 vote, the parliamentarians unanimously supported a legislative initiative put forward by United Russia deputies Pavel Krasheninnikov, Lyubov Sliska, Vladimir Pekhtin, Vladimir Vasilyev, Alexander Zhukov and Vladimir Katrenko on Wednesday. The bill suggests increasing the imprisonment term for terrorism without aggravating circumstances to 8-12 years in jail (the existing code envisions 5-10 years in prison); terrorism with aggravating circumstances to 10-20 years in jail (currently 8-15...

MOSCOW, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Russia's State Duma is expected Wednesday to reject a proposal to extend President Vladimir Putin's term of office from four years to seven. Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the Duma, the main chamber of the Russian parliament, told Channel One TV in Moscow Tuesday his One Russia party would not allow the proposal to be approved. Channel One TV, monitored by the BBC, said the Duma was expected to reject the proposal during a Wednesday plenary session. "The One Russia faction will not approve amendments to the constitution," Gryzlov said. "... The committees that deal with...

<p>MOSCOW -- The allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin won a historic victory in elections at the weekend, giving the Kremlin effective control of the Duma, or lower house of parliament, for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union. Mr. Putin's allies in the United Russia party gained most at the expense of the Communist Party, which continued to wither. But the elections also contained two much less savory aspects: a huge protest vote from those who have yet to benefit from his rule, and a collapse in support for the only parties committed to Western-style liberalism.</p>

Europe's top security and human rights watchdog has condemned recent elections in Russia as a retreat from the democratic reforms adopted after the fall of the Soviet Union. In this news analysis, CBS News' Beth Knobel explains why. Russia's political landscape looks radically different after Sunday's election for the lower house of parliament, the State Duma. The liberals are out. The nationalists are in. And the big winner was United Russia, the political party backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin isn't actually a member of any political bloc, but he openly campaigned for United Russia. And United Russia made...

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - Russia began voting on Sunday in a parliamentary election overshadowed by a train bombing near Chechnya (news - web sites) that appeared unlikely to stop parties backing President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) from making gains. Polling stations in the far eastern Arctic region of Chukotka opened at 3 p.m. EST Saturday as many Muscovites, 5,600 miles away, were enjoying a Saturday night drink. In the Pacific Ocean port city of Vladivostok, residents queued at polling stations in the first heavy snowfall of the year, hoping the new parliament might improve living standards in a...

MOSCOW - Duma passed the bill “On the federal budget for 2004” on the second reading on Wednesday. It was passed by a vote of 236 to 157, with one abstention. It was State Duma Chairman Gennady Seleznyov who abstained. Unlike the first reading, where the main macroeconomic parameters of the budget were determined, the deputies decided on budget spending items on Wednesday. Spending is set at RUR 2.659 trillion (about $88.28bn according to the current exchange rate), and revenues are projected to be RUR 2.743 trillion (about $91bn). The surplus is set at RUR 83.403bn (about $2.77bn). The Finance...

MOSCOW - Reaching out to improve relations with the United States, Russia's lower house of parliament ratified a landmark nuclear arms control treaty Wednesday that slashes the nuclear arsenals of both countries by two-thirds. The Duma voted 294-134 in favor of the so-called Moscow Treaty after a closed-door debate. President Vladimir Putin called the vote a "convincing ratification," Russian news agencies reported. Putin had urged lawmakers to ratify the treaty, calling it an "important document in the sphere of strategic stability." The U.S. Senate approved the accord in March, but the Duma delayed the vote amid Russian opposition to the...

Moscow, 11 February: The Russian State Duma is expected to adopt on 12 February a statement on the Iraq situation. Dmitriy Rogozin, chairman of the Committee on International Affairs in the State Duma, told journalists this on Tuesday [11 February], a RIA-Novosti correspondent reports. The plan, he said, is to debate two versions of the document. One has been drawn up by Duma deputy speaker Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, of the LDPR [Liberal Democratic Party of Russia]. It proposes that "any decision of the UN Security Council on the use of force against Iraq should be vetoed", Rogozin said. The other is...

After 12 years of stalling, the Russian Duma has finally passed a law to compensate the sons and daughters of victims of Stalin's purges. Each will receive the equivalent of £2 a month, one free train ticket a year, 50 per cent off the cost of medicines and free false teeth. The award, paltry even by Russian standards, is the latest sorry chapter in a compensation process that has been blocked by Communists and Right-wingers alike. In Russia there has been a concerted effort to brush over the crimes of the Communist era. Officials refuse to countenance talk of atrocities...

There is supposed to be an article floating around that outlines how the Russian Duma recently passed a resolution requesting that HAARP not be activated at the first of the year. Has anyone seen it? If so, could someone please send it to me? Thanks!

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 21, 2002 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican protested to Russian authorities over the expulsion of Bishop Jerzy Mazur of the Catholic Diocese of St. Joseph of Irkutsk, in Eastern Siberia. On Friday night, when the Polish-born bishop arrived in Moscow´s Sheremetievo-2 airport "he was expelled from the territory of the Russian Federation and forced to take a flight to Krakow, from where he came," says a statement issued Saturday by the Vatican Press Office. The bishop "was given no reasons for the measure," the statement adds. The Vatican "State Secretariat and the pontifical representation in Moscow appealed immediately...