The day's burning issues -- a new land law, post-voucher privatization, bankruptcies -- can wait until fall. Look deeply into the eyes of Moscow politician this time of year and you will see crashing surf or pastoral country scenes, if you can find him in the capital.
"Russian people like to rest in the summer, then come back from their dachas in the fall to face their problems," Yevgeny Kulyanov, analyst for the Indem Center for Applied Political Research, said Friday.
"If you really want to know what's going on, you should be in Sochi," said a government analyst, referring to the Black Sea resort of choice of Russia's movers and shakers.
The legislature is on vacation. In the divisive lower house, the State Duma, politicians of different stripes plan to relax according to party lines: A spokesman for Gennady Zyuganov said the Communist leader had "left for his motherland" of Oryol in central Russia.
According to the newspaper Rossiiskiye Vesti, Duma deputy Irina Khakamada, darling of the nouveaux riches, has gone off to Cyprus, presumably to be closer to her constituency.
Vladimir Shumeiko, speaker of the Federation Council, is headed for his constituency in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad -- not to meet with voters, but to fish.
Nothing gets in the way of a vacation for the truly determined: After being suspended since last October, the Consitutional Court, Russia's highest body, was finally restored in a law signed by President Boris Yeltsin last week.
The justices' reaction? They headed off for a two-month holiday the next day.
And the executive branch? Yeltsin is due at any time to go on a holiday his spokesman Vyacheslav Kostikov has described as "unusual" "but Russian-style." Journalists present asked if this meant a river cruise, a popular form of rest for pre-revolutionary Russian merchants and nobles.
Kostikov allowed that this was "close to the truth," but he would not elaborate on which waterway or in which direction the presidential flotilla would sail.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, not one to miss a chance to appear presidential, is planning to take a riverboat down the Volga for a campaign trip-vacation with members of his Liberal Democratic Party in tow. The ultranationalist leader has offered any journalists who wish to join him "a berth on the lower decks."
One man who is not doing any vacationing this summer: Former vice president Alexander Rutskoi, rested up after six months in prison for his role in leading last year's parliament uprising, is busily in central Russia campaigning for president.
No one in City Hall could say Friday where and when Mayor Yury Luzhkov is taking his vacation.
"Today's a short workday," said a spokesman. "Call back Monday
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