By Natalya Krainova
published with a kind permission of The
Moscow Times
Talk about 15 minutes of fame. Or, in this case, 10 minutes.
Three political parties without representation in the State
Duma were invited to participate in a parliamentary discussion
Friday — but for only 10 minutes each. And the topic was restricted
to labor conditions in Russia.
Yabloko, the liberal party shut out of the Duma in 2003 elections,
joined the Kremlin-linked Right Cause and the leftist Patriots
of Russia for the discussion thanks to a presidential bill
giving registered parties not represented in the Duma or regional
legislatures the right to speak at parliamentary sessions
once a year.
But though the three parties tried their best to publicize
their political views during Friday's event, the first since
President Dmitry Medvedev in June signed the bill allowing
them to speak in the Duma, neither the lawmakers nor the public
were likely to pay much attention to the speeches, analysts
said.
A representative from each party was given 10 minutes at
the microphone. No decisions were made by the Duma after the
event.
Right Cause was the only party to at least partially support
unpopular initiatives currently being considered by the Kremlin,
while Patriots of Russia lambasted low salaries and poor working
conditions in the country and Yabloko blamed labor problems
on the country's lack of democracy and dependence on natural
resources.
Yabloko leader Sergei Mitrokhin lashed out at the authorities
for "eliminating political competition … and creating
a monopoly of one party" in the country and criticized
the oil-dependent economy for causing a "high concentration
of property" in the hands of the elite and for an "extremely
high level of corruption," Interfax reported.
Mitrokhin linked labor issues, such as poor salaries and
lack of rights for professional unions, to the dominance of
an "authoritarian, corrupt, oligarchic bureaucracy” and
said no progress in this area is possible until the political
system is democratized.
Right Cause voiced cautious support for proposals to raise
the retirement age and extend the working week. Senior party
member Boris Nadezhdin told the Duma that "raising the
retirement age in the next five to 10 years is absolutely
inevitable because of demographic and economic trends,"
Interfax reported.
Raising the retirement age, currently at 55 years for women
and 60 years for men, will enable authorities to raise pensions
to more than 10,000 ($320) rubles a month after 2012, Right
Cause said in a statement on its web site Thursday.
Nadezhdin also spoke in favor of an initiative by the Russian
Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, which proposed
last month to extend the working week, currently capped at
40 hours, to up to 60 hours for employees who agree to work
overtime.
"Why prevent people from earning money if they are willing
to work more?" Nadezhdin said.
But Andrei Isayev, head of the Duma's Labor and Social Policy
Committee and a deputy with the ruling United Russia, called
raising retirement age and extending working hours "unacceptable,"
RIA-Novosti reported. Both proposals were rejected earlier
by all four parties represented in the Duma.
Sergei Glotov, a senior member of Patriots of Russia, chose
to focus on state-owned enterprises, accusing them of meager
wages and poor working conditions.
"No modernization is possible if labor is unappreciated,"
Glotov said.
Alexei Makarkin, an analyst with the Center for Political
Technologies, said the event confirmed that the June law only
aimed at creating an appearance of political pluralism without
actually giving the non-parliamentary parties a voice in politics.
The three parties had no say in choosing the topic to discuss
Friday and were asked to leave the hall after having their
say despite wanting to discuss a possible bill on labor issues,
he said.
The political pariahs were "listened to because such
is the law, and then they were dismissed," he told The
Moscow Times.
Alexei Mukhin, head of the Center for Political Information,
agreed that the occasion was aimed at boosting Medvedev's
image, not changing the political system. "Medvedev wanted
to position himself as a liberal," he said, adding that
Friday's speeches of the non-parliamentary parties were "politically
insignificant."
Makarkin said Yabloko's proposals for democratic reforms
were actually "in demand" in society but "few
will hear them" because many people see the Duma as a
"voting machine" for the Kremlin.
See also:
The
original
The ruling
United Russia party had to listen to ten minutes of accusations
in the State Duma. Ria.ru, December 10, 2010
YABLOKO
and the Parties of Power
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