At the meeting of the Council of the Duma on June 19, 2001, Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction in the Duma Sergei Ivanenko raised the issue of changing the Chairman of the Duma Committee for Labour and Social Policies.

This Committee has been headed by a member of the CPRF faction Valeri Saikin.

In an interview with journalists, Ivanenko said that the leadership of this committee “virtually yielded to its passions.”

“The Chairman of the Committee is a state and not a party post. Here one should not defend the interests of the CPRF faction: on the opposite, one should develop here a coordinated position with regard to the opinions of all the political forces represented in the Duma, and be capable of compromise,” stressed Ivanenko.

According to Ivanenko, if the leadership of the People’s Deputy Group submitted, as they had previously promised to the Council of the lower chamber their proposals on the revision of the package agreement on redistributing the leading posts in the Duma, the Yabloko faction would be ready to support this.

Ivanenko said that the Yabloko faction would also support “the proposals on change of Speaker, if such a question is raised”.

Based on Interfax reports.