Russians will vote this weekend in the first major elections since disputed polls in October triggered calls from President Dmitry Medvedev for smaller parties to receive better representation in regional legislatures dominated by United Russia. Central Election Commission banned Just Russia election posters in which party leader Sergei Mironov urges people voting for the Sverdlovsk regional legislature to fight against the use of administrative resources — a nod to the regional authorities' vocal support for United Russia. The ban was imposed on the grounds that the poster mentions that Mironov is also the speaker of the Federation Council, which amounts to abuse of authority, Vedomosti reported.

In the final days leading up to Russia’s March 14 regional elections, the Central Electoral Commission is chastising Kremlin-loyal opposition party A Just Russia for leaflets picturing its own leader – a move critics are saying is an obviously hypocritical double-standard.

This week the activity of Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov has been widely discussed in press.

The Federation Council will hold a question-and-answer government session on March 31 to discuss the results of the Vancouver Olympics and the development of the Olympic movement in Russia, First Vice-Speaker Alexander Torshin said at a plenary meeting of the upper house of parliament on Wednesday. Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov is also confident in the need for the dismissals of sport officials. “In the West an official can be found not guilty for some specific situation, but bears responsibility absolutely for all in his agency and resigns,” he said on Wednesday. Alongside, Mironov noted that “the problem cannot be resolved just through dismissals.” He believes that it is necessary to take a range of measures to change the situation in the training of our athletes, primarily taking into account children’s sport schools. “Most parents cannot pay for sport studies of their children,” the Federation Council speaker said.

It was the worst Russian Olympic performance in a century - with even the decidedly non-mountainous and largely snow-free Netherlands picking up more golds than Team Russia mustered in Vancouver. And Federation Council speaker Sergei Mironov was quick to direct an icy blast at sporting officials, mindful of the need to raise Russia's game before hosting the tournament in 2014. Calling the results "a catastrophe", he called for the heads of Olympic Committee chairman Leonid Tyagachyov and Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.

For a few days this month, Moscow political circles were transfixed by a rather exotic spectacle: the leader of an opposition party was criticizing Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin. This was not just any leader. It was Sergei M. Mironov, whose career in the opposition has been distinguished by passionate loyalty to Mr. Putin. When he ran against Mr. Putin for president in 2004, he said he was running because “when a leader you believe in goes into battle, you can’t leave him alone, you must stand with him.” Two years later he promised that A Just Russia, his new party, would “follow the course of President Vladimir Putin and will not allow anyone to veer from it after Putin leaves his post.”

Sergei Mironov, the chairman of the Russian parliament's upper house, implied the refereeing in Vancouver men's ice skating was biased. "If we pass it over in silence we will forever remain in the backyard," Mironov said in an interview with Russian radio station Vesti FM. "We need to put the question bluntly why there was such refereeing.... We need to get to the bottom of it."

This week the activity of Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov has been widely discussed in press.

Recognition of Abkhazia’s independence is the main event of the past five years, Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh said on Friday during an official meeting with the speaker of the Russian Federation Council upper house of parliament, Sergei Mironov.

The Russian Interior Ministry's reform will inevitably have an impact on other law enforcement institutions, Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov stated during today's board meeting of the investigations committee of the Attorney General's Office.

The conflict between Russia's ruling pro-Kremlin party United Russia and upper house speaker Sergei Mironov over the latter's disagreement with the prime minister ended peacefully when the sides signed an agreement.

The United Russia and the Just Russia parties have reached an agreement on consolidation of their activities as a result of a meeting with Speaker of Upper House of the Russian parliament and leader of the Just Russia party Sergei Mironov, Duma Speaker and Chairman of the United Russia High Council Boris Gryzlov told journalists on Monday.

The leader of Russia's third largest political party, 'Fair Russia', says it might merge with the Communists in future. "I am convinced that in the near future the two parties will merge on a social democratic basis," Sergey Mironov said in an interview with the Itogi weekly magazine on Monday.