Russian President Vladimir Putin received political party leaders in his Novo-Ogarevo residence yesterday. He united them into a pool with which he will cooperate and meet on a regular basis. Kommersant’s special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov believes that the president has thus closed the list of parties open to dialogue with him.
Meanwhile, during the meeting with the president in November, the leaders of parliamentary political process have generously offered to Putin to receive for discussing the anti-extremism struggle not only them, but also those who failed the main task of last political season.
It might seem that Russian president, unsure those party leaders will be able to accomplish that task in the upcoming season, decided to help them and agreed to meet. Yet, the fact of being present at the meeting with Putin will allow the leaders of some parties only, who are at least vaguely loyal to the current authorities, to gain the points in the new pre-election campaign automatically, without any additional efforts.
On the contrary, leaders of the opposition parties, such as SPS (the Union of Right Forces party), might lose those points they still have due to some misunderstanding, after this only meeting. With such state of affairs, it is not very clear how the voters of Yabloko political party will act after yesterday’s meeting. Yabloko’s voters seem to be completely lost in the huddle of Russian political life together with the party’s leader.
Many political leaders yesterday found themselves in Novo-Ogarevo for the first time. SPS head Nikita Belykh drove up to the residence’s entrance on a freshly washed Korea-made jeep.
-- Belykh Nikita Yurievich, SPS, -- whispered the right wing leader, addressing two news photographers who stood by the entrance. – He came to attend the event.
He gave the photographers a look full of hope, apparently expecting further instructions.
Belykh mixed up the central entrance with the staff door, and was about to enter the residence’s cinema hall where journalists were gathered, and would probably remain there with them. But the photographers showed the central door to Belykh, thus predicting his fate for several upcoming years:
-- You go that way.
State Duma Chairman, leader of United Russia party Boris Gryzlov and Federation Council Speaker, head of Fair Russia party Sergei Mironov, and, I’ll dare say, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and LDPR head Vladimir Zhirinovsky (who arrived in a black wedding limo which is longer that the president’s Pullman, and which was apparently rented for a few hours, judging by simple and not federal number plates) felt at home in Novo-Ogarevo. This might be nearly the only place in the world where they feel nice and cozy.
Joint government-society struggle against extremism became the meeting’s official cause. Putin admitted the state cannot cope with the issue on its own. He reminded there is “the federal law ‘About counteracting extremist activities’ in Russia, but there still exist legal loopholes…Besides, it is necessary to make legal wordings absolutely precise, and the punishment – inevitable and proportionate to a crime’s gravity.”
-- There is another issue which requires our joint efforts. It is supporting social and political stability during the elections, I mean the 2007 elections – and not only to the State Duma, but to legislative assemblies as well. Fourteen… Or how many? – Putin turned to deputy head of president’s staff Vladislav Surkov, who did not even had the time to think over the question.
--Fourteen! Fourteen! – confirmed party leaders all at once. It is the sphere of their vested interest.
-- Fourteen subjects of the Russian Federation are to elect their legislative assemblies already in March, -- nodded and continued Putin. – We know that a quite natural competition for voters is going on during the elections. At the same time, there is danger to trespass that fragile line beyond which a sharp definition of problems might grow into extremism. We know such examples.
The first to whom Putin gave the floor was Mironov. During such a meeting, when each detail of the protocol has a special and even supernatural significance, it explained a lot. Leader of United Russia, which positions itself as the ruling party, was moved by the president’s decision to the second position after the leader of Fair Russia. Observers have the right to take it as a sign. Now it was high time to remember there is a lonely bear on United Russia’s posters, while Fair Russia’s pre-election posters depict the bear’s tamers – Sergei Mironov and Vladimir Putin...
What was happening on the second floor of Novo-Ogarevo residence, was a nightmare dream of a United Russia member.
-- Thank you, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! – Mironov sincerely thanked the president. In his speech, he focused on intra-party goals linked to the anti-terrorism struggle.
-- In Russia’s Russian language, many things become the way they are called. – Mironov decided to give the example on whose success, apparently, insisted the speech writers of the Federation Council’s speaker. – We are all used to hearing calls for tolerance from TV and newspapers. Yet, the word ‘tolerance’ means clench your teeth and tolerate as much as you can the person of a different nationality near you... All this instead of speaking of cross-cultural interaction, friendship between nations, for which we were famous for many years and decades!
If Mironov had finished, it would have perhaps become clear what he meant. But he did not finish his speech, hurrying to move on to the next point, obviously, more important for him.
-- Anyway, all these aspects of political and party work necessarily have a very powerful regional aspect, -- quickly added Mironov. – Russia is strong with its regions, for Russia is a region... So, speaking of the regions’ work, I would like to diverge perhaps and touch upon the following issue... I head the Federation Council... The Federation Council is a chamber of regions...
Mironov did in fact diverge, and he even stopped talking. Meanwhile, those present, including the president, revived. Nikita Belykh began scratching paper with his pen even more than during the president’s speech. Apparently, he was writing down every Mironov’s word. Everyone guessed they were to discuss the recent offer from United Russia party member Sergei Shoigu to immediately ratify in the State Duma the draft bill on the electivity of the Federation Council members, on which Mironov insisted, perhaps hotheadedly, in a talk-show.
-- In the chamber of regions, -- went on Mironov, should work those people who represent their regions... That is, people coming from those regions, and not the outsiders who are so numerous now. You know my stand on the need of future transition to the electivity of the Federation Council members. It is a debatable issue. It is very hard to write a bill which would not contradict the Constitution!
However, Mironov feels respect towards such attempts, but he also feels pity, for he understands their complete hopelessness.
-- The work is going on, he assured the president, letting him know the attempts to create a law which would not contradict the Constitution are nonetheless being made. – And now I would like to initiate an offer, taking advantage of the presence of State Duma factions’ representatives here.
Mironov took another short pause. A precise answer was required from him: whether the draft bill on the electivity of the Federation Council members will be introduced to the State Duma or not.
-- It might be that the current law on the Federation Council’s formation procedure can be and needs to be changed in the following way, -- said Mironov at last. – I would offer such scheme: it should be written directly in the law that regional legislators necessarily delegate their region’s representative to their supreme legislative body. It should be written there: it can either be a temporary registration or permanent residence... because people have different life stories... And what concerns the executive branch of power, the governors, I would write the following wording, if I were an experienced legislator: “as a rule”... because we always can have and should have exceptions.
Mironov brilliantly led this round of talks. No extremism. Just the struggle against it. No reform of the Federation Council. Just the struggle for keeping it in its present state.
-- I agree, -- said Putin, thus finishing the story. – Certainly, the parliament’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, is the chamber of regions. The close connection between the Council and the regions is necessary. And if you feel that additional steps should be made in that direction, let us think.
The speech of Boris Gryzlov, who decided to focus on anti-extremism struggle, and not on the struggle against Mironov, (Gryzlov suggested stiffening the criminal responsibility for extremism and strictly punishing for involving minors into it...), alas, lost all its political acuteness after this.
