WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- There has been a great deal of criticism of last month¹s parliamentary elections in Russia. However, there are some encouraging signs that the new Duma will play a more substantial role in Russian political life.
Previous legislatures may have been more democratically elected but did not play a major role in setting policy. The former interior minister, now speaker, Boris Gryzlov said last week when the new State Duma, the main chamber of the Russian Parliament, convened that "Hard work is beginning" and that the legislature would move to act on more than 70 pieces of priority legislation.
Indeed, there are signs that this Duma may set Russia firmly on the course toward responsible Cabinet government. Andrei Loginov, the government¹s representative to the legislature, announced Jan. 26 that the Cabinet would draft new legislation in consultation with Duma members in so-called "zero" hearings rather than simply submitting finished pieces of legislation for consideration.
Creating working groups involving executive branch members, legislators and outside experts would be a step toward making the Duma a more professional legislature rather than an oratorical forum.
The Kremlin also directed its United Russia parliamentary faction to break with legislative tradition (distributing committee chairmanships among all parties in the Duma)in favor of the system in the West, where the majority party takes the chairmanships and forms the majority on the committee.
Some have criticized this as an "anti-democratic" measure, however it commits United Russia to take responsibility for the smooth running of the legislature and the passage of legislation. There will be no more "gridlock" as an excuse for why the Duma can't move on any particular proposal.
Ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, whose Liberal Democratic Party is not part of the United Russia coalition, observed: "The Duma majority is responsible for this decision and for the consequences as well. It is convenient for the opposition that everything is in their hands, since collective responsibility leads to nothing."
The new committee chairmen cannot be described as rubber stamps or nonentitites. Some are familiar to Western policymakers. Andrei Kokoshin, a deputy minister of defense during the first Yeltsin Aaministration and a strong proponent of U.S.-Russian cooperation to cope with terrorism and proliferation threats, will remain as chairman of the committee that deals with Russia's relations with its "near abroad" neighbors, likely to be a flashpoint in relations between Washington and Moscow.
Viktor Zavarzin, the head of the Defense Committee, was Russia's first representative to NATO. Pavel Krasheninnikov, a Union of Right Forces deputy who changed party allegiances, will remain the head of the committee on legislation, and is expected to bring his expertise to bear in making this Duma's legislative session more professional.
The major goal of the Duma leadership is to try and move Russia to parliamentary governance after the presidential elections -- that government ministers (including the prime minister) should be proposed by the majority party and responsible to them. "United Russia won the parliamentary elections and gained majority in the new State Duma, and it intends to nominate its fellow party members to posts in the executive bodies of power," he is quoted as saying on January 22.
There are some indications that President Vladimir Putin would be amenable to this idea. By moving key members of his staff into United Russia, he can project a democratic veneer by making his government technically responsible to the elected legislature, a luxury his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, never enjoyed.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted an unidentified United Russia source as saying: "The party should show that it carries out the will of the people in Parliament and the lawmakers for their part will control the government."
In the short term, such a development strengthens the Kremlin's hand. But an important step in Russia's democratic evolution will have occurred -- institutionalizing responsible parliamentary governance on the French or German model.
Russian democracy may have taken a step backward in the way the recent elections were conducted, but it might end up taking two important steps forward, giving an eventual full-fledged democracy much stronger institutional legs to stand upon.
(Nikolas K. Gvosdev is executive editor of The National Interest and a senior fellow at The Nixon Center.)
(United Press International's Outside View commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)
