Addressing the plenary session on Wednesday, Viktor Ilyukhin explained his demand as follows: “The Crime rate in the country has reached a threatening scale, and has become a national disaster…The police are in decay, corruption in the centre of the Interior Ministry has reached a threatening scale… Meanwhile, the head of the Interior Ministry Gryzlov, to the prejudice of his main work, has become the head of a party and actively indulges in political activities…”
Ilyukhin’s colleague from the Duma security committee, Alexander Gurov (Unity), objected saying that the police statistics over the past nine months had improved: detection of contract murders has increased by 24 per cent, of other grave crimes 27 per cent, whereas the number of successfully investigated thefts and frauds has jumped by as much as 50 per cent.
“Gryzlov should be allowed to work till the end of his term. The Presidential elections will be held in March, whereupon the new government will be formed,” Gurov said.
There is hardly anything surprising about Gurov coming to the defence of Minister Gryzlov, for both of them belong to the United Russia party. Or rather, Gryzlov is not officially a member of that party, since he is a senior state official of the so-called “A” category, and by law he cannot belong to any political party, though at the same time, Kremlin lawyers assume, the law does not prevent him from being the informal leader of United Russia – Gryzlov holds the post of, chairman of the party’s higher council.
Communist Viktor Ilyukhin is convinced that with Gryzlov combining both posts, Russian policemen throughout the country will be forced to vote for the party of their superior, and this is hardly the only manifestation of how Gryzlov will take advantage of his official position during the campaign.
That is why Ilyukhin had already twice complained against Grlyzlov to the Justice Ministry, and after his complaints remained unheeded, decided to appeal directly to Vladimir Putin.
“What difference is it to me, whether he is a member [of the party] or not, they call him their leader, while he works as a minister,” Ilyukhin explained to Gazeta.Ru in early July, when the first complaint was filed. Deputies Igor Rodionov and Sergei Glazyev, too, had signed the complaint.
“The ministry has studied the statutory documents of the party, and the form of Boris Gryzlov’s participation in its activity and has not detected any violations of current legislation,” Deputy Justice Minister Yevgeny Sidorenko responded.
In August, deputy Ilyukhin asked the Justice Ministry to give a legal evaluation of the fact that, Boris Gryzlov occupies a ministerial post, and is a political party leader, and whether or not that would be prejudicial to the civil service. “Boris Gryzlov takes part in various party events in his spare time,” retorted Justice Minister Yuri Chaika.
Thus, the ministry ignored the protests of the communists. As to Gryzlov, he appears quite satisfied with his dual position: at party events he has a chance to lash out at the government and thus he earns popularity points, and then, he is always on TV reporting on his agency’s successful operations against terrorists, ‘turncoats in epaulets’ and other rascals.
The lower house refused to back Ilyukhin’s initiative on Wednesday, though in the run-up to the parliamentary poll many of them openly question the legality of Gryzlov’s position. Yet, at this time, most of Ilyukhin’s colleagues agreed with Gurov who assured them that adopting such address would be “politically inappropriate, for the President to take measures in combating crime” and abstained from voting altogether. Only 100 deputies, mostly Communists, voted in favour of Ilyukhin’s proposal.
Meanwhile, the Union of Rightist Forces, too, has at many times complained against Gryzlov’s dual position. The rightists have even drafted amendments banning ministers from holding informal posts in political parties, such as the post of higher council chief in United Russia. On September 17, SPS members held a spectacular demonstration in Moscow: they installed an old dusty armchair in front of the building of the United Russia executive committee, thus seeking to remind Gryzlov that he had forgotten his main duties – those of the Interior Minister.
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