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There are special people in each Deputy faction who signal to
the rest how to vote in a particular way.
The job of a Duma faction's coordinator implies organising a
coordinated vote for or against a particular issue. The existence
of this function became especially obvious during the heated debates
over the law on importing nuclear waste into
Russia, when the faction leaders called on their coordinators
to be especially attentive and give deputies clear instructions
on how to vote.
The coordinator, or the vote official, is a key figure in a Duma
faction. He/she usually sits in the front row and issues signals
to deputies for unanimous voting. Signals vary from faction to
faction. The most peculiar signals are shown by Farida
Gainullina, the coordinator for the Fatherland-All Russia faction
and a former basketball player. She says, "I did not want
to copy the hand signals of other factions. Since I spent 15 years
playing basketball, I decided to use some of the gestures practised
by basketball players." The hand signal used by Ms. Gainullina
to invite "her" deputies to vote in favour of a law
is fairly standard: one arm raised above the head. Crossed arms
symbolize a vote against the current question (in basketball,
this is the conventional symbol for timeout); for extra emphasis
Ms. Gainullina hits her arms against each other several times.
If the result of the vote is of no principal significance to the
faction, she rotates two clenched fists and forearms around each
other in front of the body (which means travelling in basketball).
The Unity faction, reputed for its stern party discipline, uses
the simplest hand
signals: one arm raised above the head means voting against, while
two arms - in
favour of a certain law. The Union of Right-Wing Forces (SPS)
and Yabloko factions have adopted the symbols of Ancient Rome:
a hand with a cocked thumb
facing downward means against the issue, whereas the "hitchhiking
gesture"
implies support. In a free vote Sergei Ivanenko, the Yabloko faction's
coordinator, moves a palm horizontally above his head. His performance
from that of Viktor
Pokhmelkin, the coordinator for the SPS faction, differs solely
in that Mr. Ivanenko
prefers to do his work standing rather than sitting.
The People's Deputy Duma group is so disorganised that any party
discipline is out of the question. During the vote, the faction's
deputies usually start rushing among their fellow party members,
trying to hastily discuss an issue placed for voting and work
out an unanimous decision. As a rule, during votes the LDPR faction
is represented by the least number of deputies among the Duma
groups. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Sergei Mitrofanov and Igor Lebedev
are the only regular attendees of Duma voting procedures. Therefore,
they vote without excessive noise: the fact that they are seated
next to each other in the hall allows them to secretly discuss
voting strategy.
The CPRF faction chooses a single raised hand as the signal to
vote in favour of a
law. When a projected law is to be rejected, Nikolai Nikitchuk,
the CPRF coordinator, rotates the wrist of his hand above the
head. A free vote is signalled
by two fingers waved in the air, as if the coordinator were playing
the piano.
General Nikolai Bezborodov, coordinator for the Russian Regions
faction, uses his
commanding voice instead of hand signals, saying, "We're
voting in favour of the law, comrades!"
A faction coordinator must be exceptionally honest: otherwise,
faction members may well be misled. Duma deputies still remember
the unpleasant incident with the CPRF faction that took place
several years ago, when Oleg Shenkarev, the
faction's coordinator, was lobbying for a certain law among his
colleagues. When he failed to legally persuade the party comrades,
he pretended to mix up signals during the vote, and the entire
faction supported the law instead of rejecting it.
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