Federal Assembly - Parliament of the Russian Federation

STATE DUMA

Verbatim record of meetings
Bulletin No. 281 (423)
September 17, 1999
PUBLICATION OF THE STATE DUMA

State Duma

State Duma Building. Main Hall.

September 17, 1999. 10 o'clock.
Presided over by the Chairman of the State Duma Gennadiy Seleznyov

Presiding Officer. Dear deputies, good morning! Please, proceed to the hall.
Dear colleagues, please, take your seats.
Turn on the deputy registration mode.
Those without a card, please register at the secretariat.
Show the results.

Registration results (10:02:17)
* Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 people . . . . . 78.2%
* Absent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 people . . . . . 21.8%
* Total deputies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 people
* Quorum is present

Quorum is present.
Dear colleagues, allow me on your behalf to congratulate Viktor Yakovlevich Medikov and Valentin Georgievich Stepankov on their birthdays. (Applause.)
Dear deputies, you have the agenda for today's work in your hands. I propose to vote for it as a basis.
Who is without a card and would like to vote?
Show the results.

Voting results (10:03:10)
* Voted for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 people . . . . . 60.9%
* Voted against . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 people . . . . . 0.0%
* Abstained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 people . . . . . 0.0%
* Voted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 people
* Did not vote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 people
* Result: passed

Adopted as a basis.
In connection with today's agenda, with the "government hour", the floor is given to Boris Yuryevich Kuznetsov. Please.

Kuznetsov B.Yu., First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma.
Dear deputies, in the "Government Hour" section of our agenda today, the first item is the question of the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, well, for brevity I will say, on Transnistria. This was introduced by deputy Zhanna Mikhailovna Lozinskaya, and the chamber voted on this issue.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Ivanov personally and in writing (you have this letter, it was distributed today), and yesterday in an oral conversation with me, asked to postpone this issue to a later date. They are now intensively conducting negotiations with the Transnistrian Republic, Smirnov is supposed to arrive and meet with the Chairman of the Government. They very convincingly ask for a postponement and are ready to consider this issue on October 1. Our capabilities coincide with their proposal, and we can postpone this issue to October 1. If we are still going to consider it today, then it should be kept in mind that Minister Ivanov is on a business trip and Vasily Dmitrievich Sredin, State Secretary, Deputy Minister, is ready to come to us to participate in the work. The chamber must now decide: either to postpone this issue of our "government hour" to October 1, or still carry it out today in closed session, but the absence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is recorded in the documents.
Thank you.

Presiding Officer. Well, it seems to me that a letter also came from the Ministry of Defense. There it is also proposed: at the level of heads of departments.
Dear colleagues, I do not see, unfortunately, Zhanna Mikhailovna Lozinskaya, the author of this document. Please, let's exchange opinions from the factions on how we should proceed with today's issue.
Vladimir Volfovich, please.

Zhirinovsky V.V., head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia faction.
I think the absence of the initiator of the question speaks best of all that the question is redundant, unnecessary. Leave our ministers alone today. Do you see what is happening in the country?! Remember, Gennadiy Ni-

Bulletin No. 281 (423)

• nikolayevich, you told us on Monday that a house in Volgodonsk was blown up, three days before the explosion. This can be regarded as a provocation: if the State Duma knows that a house was supposedly blown up on Monday, and it is blown up on Thursday. And at this time, you and I are busy with completely different matters. Let's deal with this instead. How did it happen: you are reported that at 11 am on Monday a house was blown up, but the administration of the Rostov region did not know that you were reported about it? Everyone is sleeping, three days later they blow it up, then they start taking measures.
• Yesterday you spoke very well about the change of management of "Transneft", and at this time, now, workers in Krasnoyarsk are fighting off the same OMON, when Lebed is trying to seize an enterprise that has long been privatized. Let's have no double standards! If you are interested in "Transneft"... (Microphone turned off.)

Discussion

• Chairman. Vladimir Volfovich, everything should interest us. Where lawlessness reigns, we must intervene. (Shouts from the hall.) Yes, okay, I understood the position of your faction.
• Sergei Nikolaevich Reshulsky, please.
• Reshulsky S.N., faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
• Of course, it is necessary for the minister to be present here, and it is necessary to obtain the most reliable information about the work being carried out. I believe that the faction does not object to the postponement to the 1st.
• Chairman. To October 1st. The "NDR" faction also agrees.
• Golov, please.
• Golov A.G., "YABLOKO" faction.
• The "YABLOKO" faction proposes to invite Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko to the "government hour" on October 1st.
• Chairman. Anatoly Grigoryevich, we are not talking about that now. We are talking about moving today's "government hour" on Transnistria to October 1st for the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Do you object? Good.
• Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov, your opinion.
• Ryzhkov N.I., head of the "Narodovlastie" deputy group.
• We believe that this issue should be considered in the presence of the minister. This is a most important issue. But nothing terrible will happen because we postpone it, so we do not object to moving it to the 1st.
• Chairman. Here Zhanna Mikhailovna has arrived, she agrees. Let's vote anyway. Yes, Gennadiy Ivanovich Raikov also thinks that this is possible.
• I put it to a vote: to postpone this issue to October 1st.
• Who is without a card?
• Show the results.

Voting Results (10:08:13)

• Voted for . . . . . . . . 216 people . . . . . 48.0%
• Voted against . . . . . . . 4 people . . . . . . 0.9%
• Abstained . . . . . . . . . . . 1 person . . . . . . 0.2%
• Voted . . . . . . . . . . . 221 people
• Did not vote . . . . . . . . . . 229 people
• Result: not accepted

Second Vote

• Please, turn on the microphone for Lozinskaya.
• Lozinskaya Zh.M., "Narodovlastie" deputy group.
• I apologize for the mix-up.
• Dear colleagues, I ask you, let's show organization and vote. There is direct expediency. Of course, it is more reasonable for us to talk with the top officials on a very important issue. And a week or two will solve absolutely nothing, we have no fire in this regard.
• I ask, let's vote in an organized manner on the postponement to October 1st.
• Chairman. Colleagues, I propose to return to voting on this issue and resolve this issue. We vote on the issue of returning to voting.
• Who is without a card?
• Show the results.

Voting Results (10:09:16)

• Voted for . . . . . . . . 288 people . . . . . 100.0%
• Voted against . . . . . . . 0 people . . . . . . 0.0%
• Abstained . . . . . . . . . . . 0 people . . . . . . 0.0%
• Voted . . . . . . . . . . . 288 people
• Did not vote . . . . . . . . . . 0 people
• Result: accepted

Final Vote

• Returned to voting.
• I put it to a vote: to postpone the consideration of this issue to Friday, October 1st. Please vote. Colleagues, voting is underway.
• Who is without a card?
• Show the results.

Voting Results (10:09:48)

• Voted for . . . . . . . . 321 people . . . . . 71.3%
• Voted against . . . . . . . 0 people . . . . . . 0.0%
• Abstained . . . . . . . . . . . 0 people . . . . . . 0.0%
• Voted . . . . . . . . . . . 321 people
• Did not vote . . . . . . . . . . 129 people
• Result: accepted

Accepted.

Further Discussion

• Please turn on the deputy recording mode for making proposals on the agenda. (Noise in the hall.) Anatoly Grigoryevich will also speak there.
• Please show the list.
• Deputy Astrakhankina, please. (Shouts from the hall.)
• Then you — from the faction. I will give the floor from the faction, yes.
• Tatyana Aleksandrovna, please.
• From the hall. (Inaudible.)
• Chairman. You are withdrawing.
• Vladimir Volfovich — from the faction, please.
• Zhirinovsky V.V. Gennadiy Nikolayevich, it seems to me, after all, our committees, deputies should themselves react to the situation without reminders. Here it happened in Volgodonsk — where are the six deputies of the CPRF faction?! They should go there and help-