Russian State Duma refuses to discuss hunger strike in Astrakhan

At today's session, the majority of State Duma MPs have refused to support the proposal of the parliamentarians from the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (SR) (Fair Russia) Party to put the special report of the parliamentary group which visited the Astrakhan hunger-strikers in late March on the agenda of the plenary session.

On April 12, after the sitting of the Duma Council, the Speaker Sergey Naryshkin said that on April 13 one of the MPs from the working group, which had visited Astrakhan, would be given the floor; and the report of the working group would be distributed in the hall.

Today, when Deputies gathered for their plenary session, they failed to find the point on the agenda.

The MPs from the SR offered to put the point on the agenda, as promised by the Speaker. Naryshkin put the offer to vote. With a total of 226 votes needed for putting the point on the agenda, only 199 MPs voted for it, while 198 ones voted against, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

Putting this point on the agenda would have been a violation of the regulations, because at first it should have been considered by the relevant committee, the "Interfax" quotes Ildar Gabdrakhmanov, Chair of the State Duma Committee on Regulations.

Let us remind you that on April 11 the Deputies of the State Duma also rejected - by the majority of votes - the proposal to put a draft resolution on the situation with Astrakhan hunger-strikers in the agenda of the plenary session.