Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will make a report at the State Duma /lower house of the Russian parliament/ on his work in 2012. Aside from the discussion of "the difficult economic situation" and Russia's ascension to the World Trade Organization, the house factions promised to "harshly raise the question" regarding the resignation of Education Minister Dmitry Livanov. The mass media do not rule out that Gennady Zyuganov might demand the resignation of the entire Cabinet.
A Just Russia will state its objections to the government's actions which resulted in industrial decline, the pension reform, hikes in the prices of public utilities services and the fact that Russia's joining the WTO only caused negative consequences, deputy head of the faction Mikhail Yemelyanov told the Kommersant.
"Minister Livanov will be subjected to harsh criticism. We'll criticize the government harshly, yet it has nothing to do with Medvedev's personality; it concerns the policy which is being pursued."
Deputy house speaker Igor Lebedev /from Liberal Democratic Party/ noted that the issue of Dmitry Livanov's resignation will be raised "harshly." As for other things, the LDPR does not intend to voice any special complaints about the government's work, or compare the performance of the incumbent premier with his predecessors'.
On Tuesday, the Communist Party /KPRF/ demanded the resignation of the education minister as a person "not up to the job."
"In less than a year, he got a reprimand from the Russian president, set the country's teaching staff against himself, and was ridiculed by youths," Communists said.
United Russia’s attitude to Minister Livanov is "rather complicated" but "there is no official position," head of the committee on education Vyacheslav Nikonov told the Kommersant.
On Tuesday, United Russia member Vladimir Burmatov, who had been exposed for plagiarism in his thesis paper, demanded that the Ministry of Education and Sciences be cleansed of "litter-plagiarist ballast", such as the minister’s deputies Alexander Klimov and Natalia Tretyak
According to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov might demand the resignation of the Cabinet. The information attack on the government is a useful thing, director general of the Political Information Center Alexei Mukhin told the newspaper, because it mobilizes the government and enables it to rectify its errors and avoid new ones: "the Cabinet is not the sacred cow, so the resignation of certain ministers is quite possible, especially because some of them obviously cannot cope with their duties."
Mukhin said it is not about the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev; it is about "tempering his activity in disrupting the existing balance of forces, which coincides with the Kremlin's political will."