Raucous Duma Comes Roaring to a Close

xTHE MOSCOW TIMES


The State Duma went on vacation Friday with little legislation to show for itself, but plenty of rhetoric and at least one virgin.


Christened in a shouting match back in January, the chaotic, opposition-dominated lower house, closed down until Oct. 5 in fittingly unruly fashion.


Debaters argued over whether they should call each other "comrade" or "Mr." They ignored speeches on a new Civil Code, parts of which were adopted Friday, and read a newspaper with the heading "Democrats Go to Hell, And Monarchy to the Heavens."


And they yelled. At one point, the shouting became so raucous that speaker Ivan Rybkin, doubtless aware of the heightened interest in the Duma's last day, told his charges: "Don't yell, colleagues, you'll frighten the guests."


The Duma's first six months have produced only 10 laws. Fundamental legislation for a democratic society -- on elections, political parties, privatization and the use of land, to name a few -- all remain unapproved.


Meanwhile, the Duma has issued numerous denunciations in areas where it has no authority, such as on foreign relations, and demands for resignations of government figures it abhors. Many deputies are still insisting on passing a Law on Labor Collectives, which ignores the fact that many of Russia's employees now work for private companies.


And the virgin? Inevitably, this was raised by the nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who gains more print with his antics than any serious legislative work. At a press conference dedicated to the Duma's work Friday, Zhirinovsky compared his combative Liberal Democratic Party faction to a virgin.


"Our party is the only unsullied girl, the only virgin among the dirty prostitutes," Zhirinovsky said. "We will not go out into the street and will not let them rape us, we will keep our virginity until the final victory."


With politics prevailing throughout over legislation, it was appropriate that Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov named as the main success of the Duma the February amnesty of the leaders of the uprising by the last parliament.


Still, opposition and reformist legislators agreed that things could have been a lot worse for the Duma, which, after Zhirinovsky turned its first few debates into free-for-alls, looked as though it would end up like its predecessor -- under fire.


"These pessimistic prognoses have not borne themselves out," Rybkin said as the session closed.


Rybkin insisted that the Duma had turned the corner from a debating club to a serious lawmaking forum, pointing to the adoption of Russia's first real budget and a law empowering the country's highest judicial body, the Constitutional Court. In the last two weeks, the Duma has indeed picked up the legislative pace, giving preliminary approval to 44 laws. But the lower house is still seen as a body of little power. "A Duma deputy, " observed Nezavisimaya Gazeta parliament correspondent Ivan Rodin, "is still more likely to inspire laughter than respect."


Zhirinovsky also repeated his call for early elections for parliament and president next spring and for the installation of a government that would carry out the changes he believes are needed.


"It is offensive how much time the Duma wastes on empty political declaration," commented Zhirinovsky's No.1 Duma rival, Russia's Choice leader Yegor Gaidar. But even he had to admit that "the Duma is more capable of work than I feared at first."


Did that mean that Gaidar thought the Duma had become a useful addition to the Russian state?


The moon-faced economist thought a moment and said: "I do not think that two months without the Duma will hurt the people."