Chairman of the State Duma Chairman of the State Duma The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (), also called "Speaker" (), is the presiding officer of the lower house of the Russian parliament. His responsibilities include overseeing the day-to-day business of the State Duma presiding and maintaining order at the regular sessions of the parliament. The Speaker also chairs the Council of the Duma which includes representatives from all the parliamentary parties and determines the legislative agenda. The Speaker of the Duma may intervene and express his views but is supposed to be unbiased in his activities
3rd State Duma elected Gennadiy Seleznyov as the Chairman of the State Duma. In the State Duma at the 3rd convocation, two coalitions functioned at different times as the majority. In both cases, the coalitions were initiated by the "Unity" faction. The first coalition was formed immediately after the announcement of election results, during the preparations for the first meeting of the new parliament. The "Unity" faction and the Communist Party (the largest in the State Duma) signed a package agreement, according to which they shared the top positions of the Duma and the chairmanships of parliamentary committees. As for "Unity" it was