"Komsomolskaya Pravda", February 8, 2001, p.2

YESTERDAY THE DUMA ADOPTED A LAW THAT IS CALLED THE MOST SCANDALOUS ONE

Vasily USTYUZHANIN

"In Russia there must be a lot of parties. One is ruling, the others are in the prison" - commented upon this law the deputy Yushenkov.

The Duma has tormented itself over the law on parties since 1993. In 1995 the deputies already adopted it at three readings, but then the Council of Federation rejected it. And now we see a new attempt.

AT THE WALLS OF THE DUMA

Since last year the guardians of order have got the instruction - not to allow any pickets near the Duma. All these people who shout, swing the flags and protest are impeding the passage of the deputies to their working places. For these reasons a special place for the demonstrations of discontent citizens was established opposite the Duma - near the hotel "Moskva". The day before, the lobbies of metro stations "Okhotny Ryad" and "Teatralnaya" were glued over with leaflets calling to come at 9:30 to the rally to protest against the law on parties. Alas, at the hour "X" near the hotel "Moskva" I met only a ten of frozen demonstrators. They unrolled blue flags of the Transnational Radical Party. One of the transparencies read: "No - to the state financing of the parties from the budget!". A little later three members of the Radical Communist Party approached, looked around for their comrades and having found nobody, went to the metro entrance. "Why is there so few people?" - I asked a guy in felt boots and gre

en jacket. It was the leader of the party Nikolay Khramov. "Few? Quite the reverse, lots of people. Look what a frost...!" At 10:15 all flags were rolled up. The frost was getting stronger.

IN THE DUMA

Meanwhile the Duma began to discuss the law only at 12:30. 5 drafts of the law were to be examined. Though everybody was sure that only the president's one would pass. The deputies listened to the head of the Central Election Commission A.Veshnyakov inattentively, and the chairman V.Lukin was obliged to interfere: "Many deputies are turned to the tribune not with their faces, but quite the oppposite. Alexandr Albertovich (Veshnyakov. - Author) sees all those who don't listen to him, and they won't be elected any more!". The deputies began to listen more attentively. Veshnyakov appealed to foreign experience (of Mexico and Portugal) arguing why there should be not less than 10 thousand members in a party, and concluded that "the bill will contribute to the sanitation of election process in Russia".

He was supported by the deputy V.Zorkaltsev who said that at the past parliamentary elections only 10 from 19 parties had collected more than one per cent. "One can pretend that care for pygmean parties is true democracy. But who needs such care?" After that the authors of rival bills spoke. They unanimously attacked Mr. Veshnyakov arguing that to adopt the president's wording of the law meant to lead the country to the totalitarianism. V.Ryzhkov insisted that the plank of the number of party members should be five times lower: "We have a kind of apathy for parties, the people don't go to any parties, they will turn into a profitable enterprise to enroll fictitiously 10 thousands". S.Yushenkov reminded of the leader of stalinist trade unions Tomsky who would say that there can be a lot of parties in the USSR: one is ruling and the others are in the prison.

In the interruption I asked the chairman of the Duma G.Seleznyov what would happen if the law was rejected. "Nothing will happen. The rivers will flow in the same direction. Only 10 per cent of population are concerned in this law", - answered the speaker. And he went away to continue the discussion. At the moment of signing the issue the deputies didn't begin to vote yet.