The State Duma of the Russian Federation of the VIII convocation started its work

The Russian State Duma of the 8th convocation started its work. At the first plenary session, 450 Deputies and, for the very first time, five political factions gathered to elect the Chairman of the Lower Chamber of the Parliament. That day, Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the Deputies in the Kremlin's St. George Hall. The main job now is to set goals, at least, by the end of the year.

On that day, about half a thousand people gathered in the plenary hall. These were not only newly elected Deputies, but also representatives of departments, ministries, and dozens of media people. The meeting and presidium were chaired symbolically by the the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova. The number of Deputies was renewed by half. The Lower Chamber for the very first time consists of not 4, but as many as 5 factions. The new State Duma includes New People Party.

Shortly before the first meeting, the Deputies decided on who will head the Lower Chamber which still consists of the same factions without a change – the communists, liberal democrats, and ‘A Just Russians’. As in previous convocations, their leaders are Gennady Zyuganov, Sergey Mironov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky. However, the majority of Duma, the United Russia faction, will be headed by Vladimir Vasilyev. And Alexey Nechayev, respectively, will head the New People faction. It is worth mentioning that in the new convocation, the "Civic Platform", the "Rodina" and the "Party of Growth" won one more mandate. Another 5 seats were won by self-nominated candidates. Immediately after the plenary session, not within the walls of the State Duma, but in the St. George Hall of the Kremlin, the President met the Deputies.

Vladimir Putin congratulated the newly elected Deputies and immediately got down to their job. The top priority is to improve the living standards of the citizens, to stimulate development of healthcare, education, and the economy.

The largest budget item is social policy, which, in the first instance, is aimed at providing support for families with children and people of older generations. For the next three years, it is planned to allocate 41.5 trillion rubles in this field of work.

The State Duma will have 32 specialized committees working at the same time, which is more than in the previous convocation. The work schedule until the end of 2021 was also adopted. In October, November and December, there will be two meetings in a week, and one week a month to work in constituencies necessarily.

CGTN, TV BRICS partner, reported.