As Russian tanks faced off with Chechen fighters near Grozny, the State Duma on Friday politely listened to the French parliament speaker deliver a 30-minute homage to Russian culture, in French, without translation. A translated text of the speech had been distributed an hour before.


The belligerent lower chamber of the Russian parliament, which has been known to pass resolutions in response to nasty newspaper articles or the shoddy treatment of deputies by the mayors of quiet provincial towns, seems to be missing out on the biggest crisis of its yearlong history.


The only resolution the Duma has passed on Chechnya came Tuesday, calling the government's actions in the rebel republic "unsatisfactory" but offering no alternative course of action.


Attempts by liberal deputies to bring up the war in Chechnya have failed miserably, even though the Duma held plenary sessions every working day this week, instead of twice a week as usual.


It was easy to understand the deputies Thursday when they voted down Ella Pamfilova's proposal that the legislature move to Chechnya for the duration of the crisis. After all, many of them had already experienced shelling during a plenary session as deputies of the old parliament, forcibly disbanded by Yeltsin last year.


But Friday, when several liberals suggested an innocuous resolution praising Yeltsin for his decision to postpone the attack on Grozny and give peace talks another chance, the chamber again failed to make any decision.


Speaker Ivan Rybkin drowned the draft resolution with procedural complications. A recognized master at calming down often stormy debates at the Duma, this past week Rybkin has used his skills to keep the chamber from responding to events in Chechnya.


Last Friday he got legislators to postpone passing a resolution asking Yeltsin to stick to political means of resolving the crisis. On Monday, after troops had been sent in, Rybkin was notably absent from a meeting of the Duma Council, which draws up agendas for plenary sessions.


In his absence, the Council on Tuesday still called an emergency session on Chechnya. But with Rybkin presiding over it, the session only produced its toothless resolution.


Ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, in an unusually docile speech, said the Duma should leave matters of war and peace to the president and stick to legislative work. "We don't tell firefighters how to put out the fire," he said, sounding to some analysts as though he would gladly let someone else handle the crisis so that he could emerge "clean."


"The all-consuming desire for power makes such people immune to any crises," the newspaper Kommersant wrote of Zhirinovsky's stand.


Only the liberals have been active in trying to work out a policy for the parliament in the Chechen crisis. Defense Committee Chairman Sergei Yushenkov hosted a delegation of Chechen religious and moral leaders who offered their services in negotiating a settlement. The delegation was promptly stranded by Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev, who announced Wednesday he would not talk with Russia.


Since Russia's Choice faction leader Yegor Gaidar at the weekend came out strongly against the invasion, members of his faction have suggested several resolutions condemning the assault. But these motions have consistently received under 130 votes, with 226 required for them to pass.


However, deputies are not necessarily trying to shirk responsibility when they take a passive stand on Chechnya. After Yeltsin on Monday asked the Duma whom he should choose as negotiating partners in Chechnya and what conditions he should put forward, one top liberal deputy told the assembly the questions were not worth answering because the parliament should have been consulted earlier.


The conservatives, meanwhile, are trying to devise a way of holding Yeltsin accountable in case of failure in Chechnya. On Friday, the Duma passed by a vote of 329-21 the second reading of a new Criminal Code article, punishing violations of the constitution by a president with up to 15 years in prison.


With the Duma otherwise powerless to influence Yeltsin's actions in Chechnya, some legislators are openly washing their hands of the matter.


"Asking us what to do now is extremely cynical," said nationalist Sergei Baburin. "We should tell the president to follow the law and get out of this mess the way he got into it."