The Kaliningrad regional Duma is a permanent representative legislative institution of the state power in Kaliningrad region. The Duma is elected for the term of five-years by citizens of Russian Federation, who live in the region. According to the Charter (The Basic Law) of Kaliningrad region, there are 32 deputies in the Duma. The peculiarity of existing system in Kaliningrad is that 27 of the Duma deputies are elected in the 27 election districts of Kaliningrad region. Additional 5 members become parliamentarians as a result of the vote of all citizens of the region for all-region parties' lists: each of five leading political parties of the region has nominated one deputy to the Duma in November 2000 elections: Mr. Valery Seleznev (Liberal-Democratic Party), Mr. Boris Shushkin (Movement "Supporting the President of Russia"), Mr. Vitautas Lopata ("Yabloko - New Force"), Mr. Solomov Ginzburg ("Amber Region - for creative public work"), and Mr. Alexey Bukhantsebv (Communist Party of Russian Federation).
At present, the Kaliningrad Oblast Duma has 8 permanent committees:
The Chairman of the Kaliningrad Duma is Mr. Vladimir A. Nikitin. He has vice-chairmen: Valery V. Frolov, Sergey D. Kozlov and Mikhail S. Dudarev. All four are members of the regional branch of the United Russia Party.
At present there are two factions in the Kaliningrad Duma:
There are also eight members of the Duma, who didn't join any of the above-mentioned factions. Mr. Yuri S. Matochkiv, who was the Governor of Kaliningrad region in 1991-1996, is among them.
Creation of the political faction "The Western Region of Russia" in Kaliningrad Duma in 2003 was politically important stage in reshaping the political forces in the Kaliningrad Oblast nowadays. The faction consists of members of the Union of Right Forces - liberal political party, which suffered a defeat in 2003 Parliamentary federal elections. The official ideology of "the Western Region of Russia" movement was proclaimed to be "regional egoism". Mr. Sergey I. Ledenev, who for a long time served as the head of the Budget Committee of the Kaliningrad Duma, was elected as the leader of the movement. In June 2004, however, he was forced to leave his position as the head of the Budget Committee. Nowadays the faction is on the edge of a break-up.
In August 2003 the Resolution of the Governor of the Kaliningrad region Vladimir Egorov approved the Statute of the Special Economic Zone. The Vice-Governor of the Kaliningrad Oblast Mikhail A. Tsigel was appointed the Head of the Administration of the Special Economic Zone. Members of the regional Duma are playing very important role in preparing the new Federal Law "On Special Economic Zone in the Kaliningrad Oblast", which should be discussed and approved by the State Duma and later signed by the Russian President Vladimir Putin. The special group was established in the Presidential Administration to coordinate the work on the text of the federal law, with Presidential assistant and special representative on questions of development of mutual relations with the European Union Sergey Yastrzhembsky as the head of the group.
The Law of the Kaliningrad region "On Election of the Members of the Kaliningrad Oblast Duma" can be found here: http://www.kaliningrad.izbirkom.ru/way/928153/sx/art/930562/cp/1/br/928118