President Putin Plans To Discuss Judicial Reform With SPS Leaders

On Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet in the Kremlin with the leadership of the Union of Right Forces, State Duma (the lower chamber of Russian parliament) Vice Speaker Irina Hakamada told journalists. She said that invited to this meeting are Boris Nemtsov, leader of the SPS faction at Duma, his first deputy Victor Pokhmelkin, Duma legislative committee chied Pavel Krasheninnikov, and the vice speaker herself. Hakamada believes that "the hottest point under discussion" at this meeting will be Russia's judicial reform. She explained the president's intention to consider this question with SPS members by the union's having many lawyers in its ranks, such as Pokhmelkin and Krasheninnikov. According to the vice-speaker, another point for discussion can be the overripe, as she sees it, issue of education reform. It is not improbable, she said, that the sides will also discuss packages of laws on ridding the economy of the bureaucratic sway, which have been submitted to the State Duma. These bills have "many flaws" to them, stressed Hakamada, speaking on behalf of the SPS faction. The fate of the television channels TV-6 and THT may also be in question, Khakamada speculated. The Duma vice speaker stressed that the meeting with the president will be a routine one and recalled that a few days ago, Putin had already met with members of the Yabloko faction. The presidential press service reaffirmed to RIA Novosti that such a meeting is in the plans. The public relations chief stressed that Putin holds regular conferences with representatives of Duma factions and associations and that tomorrow's meeting will be just "one in a whole string of such consultations."