As Russia tackles its struggling economy and the vertiginous devaluation of its currency, the Russian public appears to have become disenchanted with federal lawmakers, with few expressing any hope that the Duma could be a catalyst for change. The lower house of parliament, replete with retired athletes and pop stars seeking a sinecure, has gained a reputation as a disjointed — and at times comical — legislative body. United Russia lawmaker Vadim Bulavinov announced he was suing Russian newspaper Izvestia and its media holding for publishing an article last year that alleged that he had been ordered off a plane because he was heavily inebriated, the RBC news agency reported last week. Two other deputies from the governing party, Alexander Sidyakin and Oleg Savchenko, were notable absentees at Tuesday mornings plenary session, RBC reported. The two lawmakers had traveled to Antarctica over the holidays to climb Mount Vinson, the continents highest peak. Their escapade became the focus of attention last week when the two deputies could not be reached and were thought to have gone missing. Russian media have questioned the timing of their extravagant trip, which reportedly cost about three million rubles — 100 times greater than the average Russians monthly salary. Sidyakin and Savchenko, who reported respective earnings of 11.7 million rubles and 3.5 million rubles in 2013, according to the Dumas website, are due to go before the Duma Ethics Committee over the incident, RIA Novosti reported. Serdyuk defended his colleagues, saying that some Duma deputies had been demonized by the press and were hard-working lawmakers. But Gudkov, who has taken part in anti- government street protests, is not so forgiving of his fellow deputies faux-pas. People who regularly follow parliamentary affairs have been disillusioned for a long time, Gudkov told The Moscow Times. Others who follow the governing party likely do not care when and where deputies choose to vacation. A new study published Monday by the Foundation for Social-Economic and Political Research, a pro-Kremlin think tank, reported that only 59 percent of Duma deputies had proposed bills in the 2014 fall session. Sidyakin — notorious for initiating a law requiring NGOs to register as foreign agents if they engage in vaguely-defined political activity — ranked 27th in a list of the 40 most active deputies from United Russia. Savchenko did not make the list.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:20:01 +0000