3th State Duma of the Russian Federation

State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation at the 3rd convocation
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Seat composition of the 3rd State Duma
Overview
Meeting place	State Duma Building Moscow, 1 Okhotny Ryad street
Term	19 December 1999 (1999-12-19) – 7 December 2003 (2003-12-07)
Election	1999 parliamentary election
Government	28 committees
Website	State Duma
Members	450
Chairman	Gennadiy Seleznyov (from Communist Party)
Party control	1st coalition: Unity and Communist Party 2nd coalition: Unity and Fatherland – All Russia

The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the 3rd convocation (Russian: Государственная Дума Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации III созыва) was the third session of the legislative branch of the State Duma, Lower House of the Russian Parliament. The 3rd convocation met at the State Duma building in Moscow from December 19, 1999 to December 7, 2003.

Until the election of the Chairman of the State Duma of the meeting, the position was filled by the oldest deputy – 79 year-old of Yegor Ligachyov – according to traditions.

On January 18, 2000, the parliament 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 mainly to keep the levers of control of the State Duma from its main competitors at that time - "Fatherland-All Russia". The Communists made an agreement on favorable terms. Later, second coalition was formed, The so-called "Coalition of Four" which included Unity, Fatherland-All Russia, People’s Deputy, and Russia’s Regions, and comprised exactly half of the Duma. The latter two of these groups were not parties per se, but rather deputy groups formed in the Duma.

During the session, the parliament consolidated pro-government forces around President Vladimir Putin: the merger of public movements "Unity" and "Fatherland" was announced, which led to corresponding changes in the State Duma. In April 2002, the newly formed majority of the State Duma cleaned house and deprived the Communists of the benefits they received at the beginning. They were deprived of the majority of management positions. This caused a crisis within the Communist Party faction - Chairman of the State Duma Gennady Seleznyov, as well as heads of two committees (Svetlana Goryacheva and Nikolai Gubenko) chose to leave the faction, and to keep their positions.