State Duma Spring Session Opens In Moscow

The 2002 spring session of the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament) has opened in Moscow on Wednesday. The session will last till late June. All in all, 411 out of 450 State Duma deputies are taking part in the first plenary session which opened at 10 a.m. Today the State Duma is to consider several social and economic projects and bills from the block "State Development and Constitutional Rights of the Citizens." In particular, the deputies are to discuss the draft resolution "Of Primary Measures in Connection with the US Decision to Abrogate the US-Soviet ABM Treaty of May 26, 1972". During the spring session the parliament has to consider more than 500 bills in the spheres of state and constitutional development and in political, economic, social and cultural spheres.