Politics of Decoration Seizes the Duma

Two days before the start of the State Duma's fall session in its newly refurbished headquarters, Speaker Ivan Rybkin was giving orders concerning the broadcloth on his desk and the bell he will use to call deputies to order.


But repairs at the Duma building at 1 Okhotny Ryad were still going on Monday, two days past the Saturday deadline that the Turkish construction firm Enka had pledged to meet, keeping 4,000 workers busy around the clock for over two months.


Duma committees were already moving into the renovated building Monday despite the continuing work whose cost was originally estimated at 170-180 billion rubles (more than $65 million).


Vladimir Bauer, head of the Duma's Work Organization Committee, told reporters last week that the restaurants in the building had not yet been equipped and that repairs on the ventilation system would take until the end of this year.One did not have to go into a restaurant or dive into a ventilation shaft Monday to see that the repairs were not yet complete. There were wires hanging from the ceilings, only two elevators in the huge building were running, and corridors were cluttered with furniture and cardboard boxes.


A group of about 10 women were vacuuming the new chairs in the big conference hall, where sessions will take place. Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist faction in the Duma, was inspecting his seat for dust with his finger.


"I like the fact that all the chairs are red now, not blue and yellow like before," he said. "That's encouraging."


Apart from 474 bright-red chairs, the conference hall now has several more useful new additions, including a press gallery and microphones in front of every deputy.


The latter novelty, however, still has some deputies doubtfully scratching their heads."We may not use them in the end," Bauer's deputy Viktor Berestovoi said as he cast an apprehensive eye on the microphones, each wrapped in a small cellophane bag.


"Even if you can't use the microphone without the chairman turning it on, I still like the old system where people lined up at microphones to get the floor," Berestovoi said.


In the new Duma, each deputy will have a separate office that he will share with his assistant. Each room will have a government high-frequency telephone and a computer with access to the building's computer network.


Zyuganov said he was happy with the renovated premises.


"It's a bit more spacious now," he said. adding that he was not surprised the work had not been completed yet. "Two moves equals the chaos of one fire, and we've moved three times already."


Zyuganov was referring to relocations of the parliament from the White House to the former Comecon building and now to the present headquarters in the former Gosplan building.


But in some places, the repair work seemed shoddy. Waiting for an elevator, Berestovoi peeled off a piece of decorative plywood over the elevator door.


"It's falling apart already," he said, frowning.


The workers were busy installing a new sound system in the conference hall. Rybkin, inspecting the conference hall for the first time Monday, said he wanted a radio system that would carry the speeches to every office in the building and enable him to reach deputies in their offices when they were needed in the hall to vote.


Rybkin ordered that his desk at the front of the hall be covered with broadcloth and said he needed a gong or a metal plate he could strike with a wooden hammer to call legislators to order.


Rybkin is also seeking another new rule requiring that all the deputies leave their guns at the entrance to the building.


Deputies have been allowed to carry guns in view of the current crime situation, highlighted by the murder of deputy Andrei Aizderdzis earlier this year.


"Words are the only weapon here," Rybkin told his entourage when they tried to object, saying they wanted to leave their guns at the door of the conference hall instead.