Declarations are looking for a way to the reader – Newspaper Kommersant No. 17 (7462) of 01/31/2023

The law on the abolition of the mandatory publication of declarations of deputies and senators has not yet been adopted, but individual deputies are already in a hurry to present their income and property to society. Meanwhile, as Kommersant found out, it may well turn out that after the introduction of new rules, even the voluntary publication of their declarations by parliamentarians will require additional bureaucratic coordination.

The deputy head of the New People faction in the State Duma, Sardana Avksentyeva, was the first of the deputies to publish a declaration on her income and property for 2022 on Monday. According to what she published in her Telegram channel information, the annual income of Mrs. Avksentieva amounted to 6 million 39 thousand rubles, and the income of her husband – 2 million 610 thousand rubles. The deputy has two land plots for a residential building in common ownership (870 and 800 sq. m.), two residential buildings in common ownership (204 and 32 sq. m.), as well as an apartment with an area of ​​37 sq. m. m. The husband also recorded an apartment in common ownership with an area of ​​​​48 square meters. m and cars Toyota Land Cruiser Prado.

The declaration campaign for deputies and senators will end only on April 1, so Sardana Avksentieva reported ahead of schedule.

“As you know,” she recalled in her post, “the Duma recently adopted a bill, according to which now information about the income and property of each of the senators and deputies of the State Duma will not be published in the public domain. That’s why I’m posting about myself. There is no ban on this yet.”

Earlier, several deputies announced their readiness to voluntarily disclose information about their income. Thus, the speaker of the State Duma, United Russia Vyacheslav Volodin, when considering the bill in the third reading, assured that he would publish his declaration anyway. Immediately after that, Valery Gartung and Oleg Nilov (“A Just Russia – For Truth”), Alexei Didenko (LDPR) and Mikhail Matveev (KPRF) announced a similar intention. Alexander Khinshtein (United Russia) wrote in his Telegram channelwhich will also publish its declaration, and expressed confidence that “the example of Vyacheslav Volodin will be followed by all deputies of the State Duma and will continue to publish their declarations.”

However, it is possible that after the introduction of new rules, even the voluntary publication of their declarations by parliamentarians may be complicated by additional introductory ones.

On January 30, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Regional Policy Vladimir Gorodetsky, presenting amendments to cancel the publication of declarations to colleagues at a meeting of the committee, explained that senators and deputies, apparently, would retain the right to disclose their data, but this would be written down in the internal regulations of the chambers. Subsequently, the senator clarified to Kommersant through his press service that he expressed his own assumption, and the mechanism for implementing the bill has not yet been discussed.

However, Kommersant’s source in the Duma’s apparatus admits that the procedure for publishing the declaration on its own initiative can also be clarified. “According to the adopted amendments, the regulations should specify the procedure for accessing information about submitted declarations, as well as in what form generalized information should be published, but, as emphasized, without personal data about parliamentarians. And just this requirement can have a double interpretation, – the interlocutor of “Kommersant” believes. the essence of the legislative changes. In addition, the source adds, it is unclear whether the tables with declarations published earlier on the official websites of both chambers will be removed from access.

Two deputies, in a conversation with Kommersant, did not rule out that decisions on the format of publications could be made at the level of faction leaders.

“I don’t see the need for any regulation of the publication of declarations,” Oleg Morozov, chairman of the Duma Control Committee, told Kommersant, stating that this is only his personal point of view so far. “b”) will accurately present to the public in the form in which I see fit. I admit that parties and factions can make some solidarity decisions in this regard. The law does not force us not to publish declarations. This means that such an opportunity remains in any format at the choice of a deputy or a faction that will make the appropriate decisions.”

To publish declarations, parliamentarians who want to do this will not need to change the regulations, Vyacheslav Timchenko, head of the Federation Council committee on regulations, agrees. According to him, this internal document says only about the need to submit declarations, but not about their publication. It will already be a personal matter for everyone whether to publish information about their income and how, the senator added.

Deputy Valery Gartung told Kommersant that he would publish the declaration either on the faction’s website or on his page. He noted that the SRs might discuss the format for publishing declarations at a meeting of the faction and come to a unanimous decision, especially since the leader of the SRZP Sergei Mironov supports the idea of ​​publishing information about the income and property of the deputies. Communist Mikhail Matveev (KPRF) plans to post a declaration on his official website, he told Kommersant. However, in his opinion, if each deputy is free to post declarations wherever he wants, this will complicate the study of information. Mr. Matveev also does not rule out that factions may make internal decisions on the publication of declarations and their form.

Anastasia Kornya, Ksenia Veretennikova, Maria Makutina