Russian President Dmitry Medvedev submitted a bill to parliament that would allow parties without seats in the legislature to participate in at least one session a year, Reuters quoted the Kremlin as saying today. The bill was in line with small-scale political reforms that Medvedev has initiated since his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, steered him into the presidency in 2008. The proposed amendment to a law on political parties would allow registered parties without seats in the Duma, the lower house of parliament, to take part in a plenary session at least once a year, according to the state-run RIA news agency. The same would apply to regional legislatures, it said. The Duma, and politics throughout Russia, is dominated by Putin's United Russia party. Of the three other parties with Duma seats, only one -- the Communist Party -- regularly opposes government-backed legislation.
