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Duma's wage game

Posted on Monday 2 November 2009 at 02:03 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

In a move many are calling purely political, Russian lawmakers are drafting legislation to raise the country's token minimum wage by as much as 150 percent.

In an amendment to the government's 2000 budget, the State Duma (lower house of parliament) is proposing to increase the minimum wage from 84 rubles ($3.29) a month to freshwater pearl jewelry 200 rubles ($7.69) a month. The Finance Ministry, however, says there's not enough money to raise the minimum wage past 100 rubles ($3.85) a month.

Either way, some say, nobody would notice the difference.

"Our minimum wage doesn't mean anything," said Dmitry Pribylovsky, a political analyst with the Panorama think tank. "It's a fiction that no one believes. It has no relation to reality whatsoever."

The last time the minimum wage was calculated was in 1991. Since then, it has fallen in real value to about $3.29 a month.

"You can't even buy bread with that," Pribylovsky said.

Even 200 rubles wouldn't suffice. The minimum needed to get by in Moscow, by some estimates, is about 2,000 rubles ($77.69) a month.

As a result of inflation, the minimum wage has ceased to have any impact on Russian workers. Although the constitution guarantees every Russian citizen a salary of no less than the minimum wage, few, if any, employers actually pay that little.

"On that level, I agree it means little," said Alexander Leonov, a specialist on the issue with the Duma's Labor and Social Support Committee. "But I don't agree it means nothing at all."

Under the current system, the minimum wage is used as the basis for calculating stipends, pensions, compensations, taxes and fines. It therefore has "very real meaning" for the budget, Leonov said.

The policy explains why the Finance Ministry has complained of a lack of money to raise the minimum wage - because that would mean raising pensions and other government payments.

But the Duma has a solution for that. In a separate bill being considered now, the minimum wage would be bumped from its place in the budget's calculations for pensions, taxes and other figures.

In its place will eventually be substituted the so-called "subsistence minimum," the amount needed just to akoya pearl necklace get by. That figure, once decided by the Federation Council (upper house of parliament), will presumably be higher than the current minimum wage. In the interim, the budget will continue to use the 84-ruble benchmark used this year and in years past.

The result is that the minimum wage could be raised without any cost to the government, Leonov said. And at the same time, Pribylovsky argues, it would still have no impact on even the poorest Russian.

"So, it's purely political propaganda," he said.

Duma's liberal oddments unite

Posted on Monday 2 November 2009 at 02:02 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

MOSCOW - Five State Duma deputies have set up an informal grouping in the lower house. After weeks of consultations the handful of liberals, who won single-mandate seats in the lower house in December’s parliamentary elections, have formed a league of their own. On Wednesday it was presented to the press at a news conference at the Interfax office.

The coalition was formed by members of two right-of-centre parties that failed to win Duma seats in last year’s elections – Yabloko’s Galina Khovanskaya, Sergei Popov, Mikhail Zadornov and Liberal Russia’s Viktor Pokhmelkin. Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent, also joined the group.

The latter, incidentally, did not show up at the news conference on Wednesday. ''He is currently in Altai (Ryzhkov’s home region where he won his Duma seat – Gazeta.Ru) and has not been able to round pearl depart from Barnaul for two days now,'' Zadornov informed the press.

''All of us were elected in single-mandate constituencies, all of us were elected by people who adhere to certain liberal-democratic views,'' Mikhail Zadornov told the press. ''The creation of the group is our response to anti-democratic actions the Duma majority undertook following the elections,'' Viktor Pokhmelkin continued.

The new group is clearly unable to provide an effective counterbalance to the pro-Kremlin United Russia faction that controls as many as 306 seats in the lower house. Under new Duma regulations endorsed shortly after the elections, to secure official status a deputy group has to number at least 55 members.

At any rate, Galina Khovanskaya admitted, they had failed to meet the required minimum. She is convinced that had they managed to win over 55 deputies to their side, the Duma majority would have amended the regulations again, increasing the number of deputies needed to form a deputy group from 55 to, say, 75.

Still, the liberals are not ready to give up and have already begun consultations with five other deputies who may also join their informal coalition in the near future. At the same time, not everyone is welcome to join, Viktor Pokhmelkin said. For example, Sergei Glazyev, the embattled co-chairman of the Motherland bloc who has been at loggerheads with his one-time ally, Dmitry Rogozin and who faces expulsion from his faction, was hinted at.

The new coalition plans to advance legislative initiatives well-known to the five. For instance, they will take an active part in debates on the new Housing Code, with Galina Khovanskaya a recognized expert in that sphere. Lawyer Sergei Popov will oversee amendments to the package of laws on judicial reform, amendments to the Administrative Code, and improvements to the law on the enforcement of court orders. Viktor Pokhmelkin, co-founder of the Automotive Russia movement, will seek to improve the new car insurance laws.

Journalists attending the news conference could not help thinking that the group was another attempt by Vladimir Ryzhkov to set up a rightist faction in the State Duma. That idea and Ryzhkov’s candidacy for the post of the new liberal leader was actively discussed after the December polls only to turquoise necklace be dropped shortly afterwards because Yabloko and the Union of Rightist Forces rejected the proposals. Some even said that Ryzhkov was the latest project of the Kremlin’s spin-doctors, alarmed by the liberals’ failure to secure seats in the lower house.

On Wednesday the five dispelled those doubts claiming that their decision to set up the coalition was their own initiative, and they had had no negotiations with people from “there”.

Duma turns down draft resolution snubbing Bush

Posted on Monday 2 November 2009 at 01:58 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

MOSCOW - The State Duma on Friday turned down a draft of a resolution on the 'forthcoming visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to St. Petersburg to participate in the city's 300th anniversary celebration.' According to Rosbalt , the document's author State Duma Deputy Alexey Mitrofanov of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia suggested approaching Russian President Vladimir Putin with an offer of 'refusing Bush an invitation.'

The draft states that 'Russian society would like to akoya pearl jewelry see among its guests for celebrating St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary government, social, and political leaders at the world level, scientists, thinkers, and cultural figures who personify the civilized and progressive part of humanity.' Mitrofanov said 'at the present time representing those politicians that are not considered in vogue with world society destroys international stability and security. The war in the Persian Gulf, begun on the initiative of the American leader, killed hundreds of peaceful residents and destroyed the infrastructure of Iraq."

The State Duma Committee for International Affairs came out against Mitrofanov's initiative. 'If you follow the logic of the resolution's author, for refusing George W. Bush an invitation, it necessarily follows that we must also refuse other leaders of countries who supported the U.S.-led operation in Iraq. In that case, conducting meetings on a higher level in St. Petersburg could come into question.'

Mitrofanov's draft resolution had the support of 138 deputies, and needed a minimum of 226 to pass.

Duma to mull ban on media coverage of terrorism

Posted on Monday 2 November 2009 at 01:58 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

MOSCOW- United Russia, the pro-Kremlin bloc that dominates the new State Duma, is set to either completely ban media coverage of terrorist attacks and catastrophes, or to considerably restrict the volume of information reported. The issue has been addressed in two draft bills submitted to the lower house recently and will be reviewed by lawmakers next month.

Valery Komissarov, chairman of the Duma information policy committee, has proposed an amendment to the mass media act, ordering television networks to rope pearl necklace refrain from ''showing the bodies of victims of terrorist acts as well as fragments of human bodies''.

The ban is necessary to ''counteract information terrorism and to prevent psychological pressure on citizens'', the author of the draft said in an explanatory note attached to the draft. Komissarov’s colleagues in the information policy committee have already held a preliminary discussion of his initiative and tentatively endorsed the proposed amendment.

Masterminds and perpetrators of terrorist attacks often make use of news reports showing the results of their evil deeds not only to their superiors but also to intimidate the public, sowing panic and fear of the power wielded by terrorists, Komissarov says in his note.

''We must protect our society from the flow of violence coming from TV screens nowadays,'' Komissarov told Gazeta.Ru.

Although criticized by many as being tantamount to the first step towards introducing censorship, Komissarov’s amendment does not seem as radical when compared to the draft introduced recently to the lower house by United Russia’s Mikhail Yurevich, who called for a ban on all media coverage of acts of terrorism except for official reports issued by law enforcers and other agencies concerned.

Yurevich, too, is calling for amendments to Article 4 of the law on mass media by introducing a ban on the dissemination on television and videos of information on acts of terrorism, with the exception of information released by law enforcement agencies investigating those crimes.

According to the author of the draft, terrorists know in advance, that ''no matter where an act of terrorism is perpetrated the whole country will be informed about it and the goal – destabilising society – will be achieved.'' In Yurevich’s opinion, by covering attacks the media contribute to that destabilisation.

Yurevich believes that to cover terrorist attacks journalists must be required to pearl strand wholesale obtain permission from the authorities, first and foremost, from law enforcers.

The information policy committee is still to consider Yurevich’s initiative; however, the committee members are skeptical about its prospects. ''It is very strange that he has submitted it in the first place,'' a committee official, who refused to give his name, told Gazeta.Ru. ''It is generally accepted in the United Russia party and its faction in the State Duma that there should be a unanimity of opinion, and what Yurevich proposes differs greatly from Komissarov’s amendment. The committee will reject his initiative.''

None of the deputies polled by Gazeta.Ru could say whether the proposed ban would apply to printed media and web sites. ''There is no need to conjecture on our initiatives. We do not seek to ban everything,'' Valery Komissarov assured Gazeta.Ru. ''After all to ban everything is like attaching hands to Venus de Milo. What an ugly sight that would be, don’t you agree?''

Remarkably, many deputies who are not from the United Russia faction have denounced Komissarov’s initiative as a violation of the Constitution and the rights of journalists. According to information policy committee member, Communist Alexander Kravets, the adoption of such bill is inadmissible.

Liberal-minded independent deputies went even further, saying that Komissarov’s proposals amount to the introduction of censorship. ''Such issues cannot be regulated by laws. There are human ethics which alone should serve as a criteria for what can be shown and what cannot,'' Viktor Pokhmelkin told Gazeta.Ru. ''Today they ban showing dead bodies, tomorrow they will ban footage of destroyed buildings. That amounts to censorship.''

''But what’s most important is that such information cannot be hushed up: if an act of terror is not duly covered in the media, rumours will spread with the crime and the terrorists becoming mythology,'' believes Pokhmelkin.

''Such an amendment amounts to cultured freshwater pearl an attempt by bureaucracy to introduce censorship. Being unable to eliminate the causes and conditions of terrorism the authorities seek to shut people’s eyes and ears and journalists’ mouths. Our authorities are weak and impotent. They prefer no dialogue with society,'' Pokhmelkin said.

Duma to extend terms for prisoners, but not president

Posted on Monday 2 November 2009 at 01:54 PM - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

MOSCOW - A much-debated amendment to the Constitution envisaging an extension of the president’s term in office from the current four to seven years has been included in the Duma agenda for Wednesday’s plenary session. On the same day the State Duma is likely to pearl jewelry wholesale introduce a new form of punishment – life imprisonment.

The Duma Council, which defines the State Duma’s agenda, has endorsed the work for tomorrow’s plenary session. Among the 71 drafts are the two most controversial legislative initiatives submitted to the lower house since its re-election last December.

On Wednesday the State Duma is to vote on the draft bill proposing an amendment to the Constitution extending the president’s term in office from four to seven years, as well as on a draft envisaging an increase in the prison term for acts of terrorism. It has been proposed to extend the punishment for terrorism from 25 years to life imprisonment.

The pro-presidential majority in the State Duma has already demonstrated a lack of interest in the constitutional amendment, submitted to the lower house two weeks ago by the Ivanovo regional legislature.

Speaking about Wednesday’s session, chairman of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov pointed out that the United Russia party he heads will not allow the amendment to the Constitution, following recommendations from the committees for legislation and nation-building.

In truth, however, this is not exactly the case. As Gazeta.Ru reported earlier, the two committees said they treated the Ivanovo lawmakers’ initiative with understanding but passed an interim decision ''not to support it''. It is known that only one faction is keen to unanimously support the constitutional change. That faction is Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. In comments for Gazeta.Ru on Tuesday, Zhirinovsky assured our correspondent that his faction ''will unequivocally support'' that draft.

However, with LDPR’s support alone the draft will never receive the required approval, which is precisely what United Russia is working towards: to have the controversial bill rejected and thus to boost Putin’s ratings by portraying him as a truly democracy-oriented president in the run-up to his likely re-election on 14 March.

Another important draft bill, on amending the Criminal Code, will most likely be approved on Wednesday. In the wake of the Moscow metro explosion earlier this month Duma deputies called for amendments to Articles 205 and 57 of the penal law to wholesale pearl jewelry toughen the punishment for terrorism. In particular, the deputies are set to amend the law so that life imprisonment is not just used as a substitute for the death penalty but as a punishment administered separately for terrorist offences. Given the unanimity of the new Duma there is little doubt that those proposals will be adopted.