The First Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction in the State Duma Sergei Ivanenko said that it was unlikely that the State Duma would support the proposal of the People's Deputy Group to reduce the number of Duma committees. The leader of this group Gennadi Raikov and his colleagues proposed a cut in the number of the committees of the Duma from 28 to 12 , while simultaneously enlarging the remaining committees. In an interview on Friday Ivanenko expressed his opinion that "the Kremlin will not accept such abrupt changes in the configuration of the Duma".

According to Ivanenko, such a structural transformation represents a "serious political decision" which, if realised, would demonstrate "a change in the attitude of President Putin to the basic political forces of the country." Sergei Ivanenko also said that the initiative of the People's Deputy group merely represents a "pseudo-activity", a kind of "PR action". He also admitted here that " it would certainly be more sensible to have 10 or 12 committees".

Speaking about the potential dismissal of the Duma and pre-term parliamentary elections Ivanenko noted that "this idea is in the air". However, stressed Ivanenko, it is quite difficult to implement this goal, as in this case the pro-governmental Duma majority should agree to a no-confidence vote in the government.He thinks that if the pro-governmental Duma majority agree to such a step, this would imply that they would lose their electorate.

Based on Interfax reports.