SPECIAL OPERATION TO CAPTURE THE DUMA

is entrusted to a modest deputy

Dmitry KAMYSHEV

Yesterday the deputy of the State Duma Andrey Klimov introduced his amendments to the law on election to the lower chamber. This event passed practically unnoticed. However, its consequences can be compared with the much-talked-of bills on the reformof the state power. "Having tamed" the regional leaders, the president is ready to begin to recarve the parliament seriously.

The Small hall of the State duma, where Klimov invited the press in the break of the morning plenary session, was practically empty. The journalists know well that many deputies carry out briefings with the only one goal - to remind to the world oftheir existence. Therefore, the press-conference of a deputy whom nobody knew, was attended by a dozen people from small or non-existent mass-media. The only one TV cameraman filmed desperately an empty hall and soon retired.

This circumstance didn't confuse the deputy and he expounded his ideas to the public in a business-like manner. Klimov wants to change only two items in the law. The correlation between the one-mandate deputies and the deputies elected by party lists(225 to 225) is proposed to be changed in favor of the first ones (300 to 150). The second amendment supposes to raise the minimum necessary for the entry of the parties and blocks to the Duma from previous 5% to 7%.

These measures, according to the author of the bill, would raise the representativeness of the parliament and prevent the election of the "marginal parties". Furthermore, in case if it is recognized that the elections by party lists "are nor carriedthrough" (according to the law in force, it happens, for instance, if none of the parties gets 5%), the Duma's work won't be blocked - the number of the one-mandate deputies will make the quorum.

The speech of Klimov didn't impress the publis very much. And it was a mistake. There are all reasons to suppose that yesterday a first volley of the next Putin's attack sounded in the Duma - and this time the attack is not against the governors butagainst the deputies. Because "having tamed" the executive power, the president will have to take care of the legislators. At least because the present "bear" majority in the Duma isn't everlasting, and no one knows what the next Duma election willbring. But Putin for sure will want to rule the country tranquilly after the 2003 as well.

And it was the deputy Klimov who - willingly or unwillingly - turned out the artilleryman. The thing is not that the author of the bill, according to his words, had conducted consultations with the president's administration and had got a fullapproval there long before he introduced the bill to the Duma. And the thing is not that the pro-Kremlin "Yedinstvo", as Klimov declares, already promised to him its consolidated support (which almost guarantees 226 votes necessary for the approvalof the law). The thing is that all the initiatives that sounded yesterday, surprisingly coincide with the position of Vladimir Putin (who declared that he would "welcome" the increasing of the number of the one-mandate deputies in the Duma), and withthe programme principles of the "Yedinstvo" (which declares that it is necessary to abolish the "party lists" election system completely), and with the general Kremlin's line for intensification of its influence on all the political processes.

And the initiative itself was set like a classical intelligence operation: an unknown deputy of the politically indistinct group "Russia's regions" proposes "quiet" amendments at the tightest point of the decisive struggle for three president's billson the power reform. Who will pay attention, when "such things are going on" in the country? And the approval of the amendments (the Duma is likely to examine them in autumn) will happen in a new political reality, when "tamed" governors will beforced "to help" only the candidates the Kremlin likes. By the way, Klimov himself answering the question of the " " reporter whether is possible that only the governors' proteges enter the Duma instead of the parties' activists from Moscow,simple-mindedly replied: "What an idea! You know, all this goes together with the president's package..."