An off-site meeting of the State Duma Council with the participation of Governor Anton Alikhanov was held in Kaliningrad

In Kaliningrad on Monday, an offsite meeting of the State Duma Council was held with the participation of Governor Anton Alikhanov. The main topic of discussion was the development of the region under Western sanctions. Previously, this format of Duma work was rarely used, but now it has gained popularity, the expert notes: it is assumed that in this way the leadership of the chamber will be able to “better understand the problems on the ground and avoid political disagreements when discussing options for resolving them with the government.” The deputies do not rule out that they will gather for visiting councils during the summer holidays.

The leadership of the State Duma began this regional week in the same way as the previous one, with an offsite meeting of the council of the chamber. On June 5, the deputies were in Murmansk, and a month later they arrived in Kaliningrad. Prior to this, such events had not been held for several years. True, in the summer of 2022, Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov agreed to hold an exit council of the chamber in the northern capital in the fall to discuss the development of the city, but these plans never came to fruition.

In Kaliningrad on July 5, as earlier in Murmansk, the main topic of the off-site meeting of the Council of the Duma was the development of domestic industry and the introduction of innovations. Mr. Volodin recalled that the Kaliningrad region suffered from sanctions more than other regions: “Given that about 40% of trade is accounted for by sea, we need to take into account this factor – the presence of unfriendly countries near the border of the Kaliningrad region, which are doing everything to stop development of our country. It is clear that the territories that are closest to these countries are experiencing more problems, so we must do everything on our part so that there is more attention to such regions.” The outcome of the meeting should be proposals to the government on measures to support the Kaliningrad region, the speaker added.

As the chairman of the Duma Committee on Industry and Trade Vladimir Gutenev (United Russia) told Kommersant, Vyacheslav Volodin highly appreciated the format of the offsite meeting and said that it was necessary to make it permanent. “The substantive acquaintance with the territories will be continued. The meetings will be attended by the heads of those specialized committees whose activities are most important for a particular territory,” explained Mr. Gutenev. He did not rule out that visiting meetings of the councils of the chamber would also take place during the summer holidays: “Such proposals were made, and I think that it would be right. We are fighting on all fronts, and first of all for technological sovereignty, so vacation in these conditions is a relative concept.” According to the deputy, the priority regions to visit are those associated with agriculture, the development of the aerospace industry and transport infrastructure.

“Exit meetings of the Council of the Duma are a new form of work for us,” Aleksey Nechaev, leader of the New People, shared his opinion with Kommersant. “Such meetings will be held once every one or two months, on various industry topics and in different regions of Russia . It is important to come to the region in order to understand how to help deal with some local problems.” In Kaliningrad, according to the deputy, three major topics were discussed: the socio-economic development of the region, the budgetary support that the federal center can provide to the region, and the development of infrastructure and transport directions.

Pavel Sklyanchuk, member of the RASO Committee on Political Technologies, notes that visiting meetings of the Duma Council are a rather rare format that has been practiced since 2018: “Now it is of particular relevance in terms of “landing” the leadership of the parliament and factions in the regions in order to better understand the problems at the places and avoid political differences when discussing options for resolving them with the government.” This does not contradict the Duma’s regulations, since it does not specify exactly where the council meets, the expert says.

Ksenia Veretennikova