State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin scolded fellow party members of Vladimir Zhirinovsky for the fact that at such a young age, with ministerial salaries, they allow themselves to be late for meetings, while their older colleagues come to work on time.
Thus, during the parliamentary session, Volodin drew attention to the fact that “the youngest deputies are moving into the hall,” pointing to LDPR member Vasily Vlasov, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Vladimir Volfovich entrusted you to be here, in this row, where he usually opens the meetings, and you left the hall. Pay attention, look, Gennady Grigorievich Onishchenko - he could have stayed away, he knows everything, and voters love him and will elect him again...
The only country where there are such young deputies! Where do you see such young people in America? There is no one under 70 years old in parliament,” the speaker shamed the young deputy and handed the floor to his faction colleague Sergei Ivanov.
“Vyacheslav Yuryevich, can he instruct the relevant committee to develop a bill to raise the average age of a deputy to 70?” – Ivanov suggested.
“If they don’t walk, then this will all end!” – Volodin supported the initiative.
“Just imagine: 20-something, the salary of a federal minister and they don’t go to the gym. Now, Chelengarov may not walk, twice a hero of the USSR and the Russian Federation. I spent my whole life, my best years, among ice floes and penguins! Valentina Tereshkova, the first female cosmonaut, could have avoided coming here at all,” speaker Vitaly Vlasov chastised.
Later, while Volodin cited the example of Communist Party deputy Alexander Yushchenko, who, despite yesterday’s 50th anniversary, is at work today, another young member of Zhirinovsky’s party, Mikhail Degtyarev, appeared in the hall.
“You see, it’s an anniversary, but in the Duma, at work. Young people have stepped up. Yes, everyone noticed that colleague Degtyarev came into the hall. Ivanov, make a note. And where you were, no one is interested, because the parliament – where you were elected, but where you were – was not elected,” the speaker scolded the latecomer.
In response, Degtyarev began to make excuses that he had watched the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“You don’t need to refer to the president, because they don’t add these links. You should have been here, and this would be the best support for the president, because if everyone in their place fulfills their duties, there is no need for another. And while we were away, we watched the president. Well done, good! Did we add or subtract from this? And you should have listened to Elvira Sakhipzadovna (Nabiullina, head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation - ed.),” Vyacheslav Volodin sternly noted.