Sergei Naryshkin, the former head of the presidential administration, was voted in as the parliamentary speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, at its first session on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.
Naryshkin, who was supported by 238 deputies with 88 against out of a 450-seat parliament, said he would not introduce special measures to control deputies’ attendance.
“Discipline is a matter of the deputy’s personal responsibility,” Naryshkin said. “We are elected to prove people’s trust.”
His comment came as President Dmitry Medvedev harshly criticized last year the previous State Duma’s deputies for truancy at parliamentary sessions.
The president then suggested changing regulations to force lawmakers with poor attendance records to leave parliament.
The parliament also named the head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, as well as a communist party representative, Ivan Melnikov, the Duma’s first deputy speakers.
A senior party member of the ruling United Russia party, Andrei Vorobyov, together with Oleg Morozov, Lyudmila Shvetsova, Sergei Neverov, member of A Just Russia party Nikolai Levichev, as well as the head of the nationalist LDPR faction in the parliament, Igor Lebedev, were appointed vice speakers.
Boris Gryzlov, the former Duma speaker, left his post last week after eight years at the post.
