Duma member handed speaking ban

Russian Parliament Member Ilya Ponomaryov has been banned from speaking in the State Duma chamber for a month, officials ruled Friday. Ponomaryov will be barred from taking part in plenary sessions from Oct. 16 to Nov.16 for "publicly using crude, offensive expressions that damaged the dignity and honor of the State Duma and other people," the ruling said. During discussions on July 13 Ponomaryov, a member of A Just Russia, a coalition of social democratic political parties which controls 46 of the 450 seats in the assembly, used the phrase "crooks and thieves," a term widely used in criticism of the opposition United Russia party, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported Friday. State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said he regretted Ponomaryov couldn't summon "the courage to apologize to his colleagues," he said.