Business as Usual for City Duma
By Vladimir Kovalev
Staff Writer
Wednesday saw of the first meeting of the new Legislative Assembly that was elected on Dec. 8, and despite - or perhaps because of - some new faces in the assembly, it seems that everything old is new again. The session, which was attended by only 37 of the 50 deputies, was further marred by a malfunction in chamber's the electronic voting system, forcing the deputies to vote by hand and causing some moments of confusion. But the breakdown in the voting system wasn't the only unusual happening on the first day, as among the seven factions in the assembly was one under the name of the Communist Party of Russia and the People's Patriotic Party. The Communist faction is the first to be registered in the assembly since it was first elected in its present form in 1994. "This means that the left end of the spectrum among the city electorate is now represented in the Legislative Assembly on a more-or-less significant level," said Vladimir Yeryomenko, a legislator from the five-member faction in a telephone interview on Thursday. "This is natural, and not a sensation at all," he added. "From 12 to 14 percent of the population agree with our position or are close to it - roughly the same number as support Yabloko. It was not right that they were not represented before." Vadim Tyulpanov, head of the pro-Kremlin Unity faction, said that he also sees nothing to worry about in the appearance of the faction. "The deputies here represent the city as it is," Tyulpanov said. "This is the city of old democratic traditions. It's not Magadan, where they have 29 lawmakers of a total of 30 belonging to Unity. We can't have an assembly like that." One of the first chief tasks for the newly formed faction will be participating in the process of selecting a speaker for the assembly, which could engender a sense of deja vu. The process threatens to be fractious and could drag on for months - even years, as it did in the last Legislative Assembly, elected in 1999. Sergei Tarasov, the speaker in the last Legislative Assembly was elected to the position in June 2000, after a 2 1/2 year-long struggle between pro and anti-governor factions in the chamber. Early rumors are that the Kremlin may be interested in dumping Tarasov, using the resources of the Unity faction and its allies. "The trading process to work this out in the parliament could take a long time," said Boris Vishnevsky, a Yabloko member. Vishnevsky is not a member of the assembly. "We have two sides here: One in favor of a third term for [Governor Vladimir Yakovlev] and one in favor of saving the City Charter," Vishnevsky added. "So it could take anywhere from one month to 1 1/2 years to find a solution. We could even stretch the process to four years, but this would be the limit." According to Vishnevsky, the battle will be between pro-governor factions, who will support Sergei Tarasov for the position, and factions supporting Tyulpanov, the Unity Party faction leader. Tyulpanov is said to be opposed to plans by supporters of the governor to amend the City Charter to allow him to run for a third term. The charter presently limits governors to two terms, with a two-thirds majority - 34 votes - required to change the provision. Alexander Afanasyev, the governor's spokesperson, says that Tyulpanov acts in the interest of his allies in the so-called St. Petersburg team in Moscow. But he said that President Vladimir Putin shouldn't be counted as part of the team. "Putin is the only real St. Petersburger in Moscow, because he is not ashamed of his [native] city," Afanasyev said in a telephone interview Thursday. "It is people like are [United Energy Systems head Anatoly] Chubais, [head of the State Audit Chamber Sergei] Stepashin and [Federation Council speaker Sergei] Mironov who are playing this game. When they sleep, they dream of taking a swipe at Yakovlev." On Thursday, Tyulpanov accused Sergei Tarasov of mismanagement in relation to the voting-system debacle. "I don't know what the cause was - intentional sabotage or just a case of technical failures - but the one thing is clear: We have to elect a speaker who can clean up the mess in the assembly. We have people who don't want to work ... who try to prevent [lawmakers] from electing a speaker, who paralyze the work of the legislative [branch] of power in St. Petersburg, turning it into a circus," Tyulpanov said in a statement released by his press service. "This is, at least, the fault of the Legislative Assembly's [administrative] staff, which was appointed by and worked under [Tarasov]," he said. But Tyulpanov drew his own share of criticism on Thursday. "There were two candidates, Tarasov and Tyulpanov, and I prefer Tarasov," said Yeryomenko of the Communist and Patriots faction. "It is, of course, linked to the question of the third term," he said. "Tarasov ... isn't going to let himself become the center of intrigues or let us find ourselves in the role of hostages."
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