Deputies call for a call on themselves - Newspaper Kommersant No. 177 (7378) of 09/26/2022

Deputies call for a call on themselves - Newspaper Kommersant No. 177 (7378) of 09/26/2022



After the partial mobilization was announced in Russia, a number of State Duma deputies sent statements to their leadership about their readiness to go to the front: according to information from the parties, there are about ten of them so far. However, no one in the Duma now knows in what order the deputies can be mobilized; they do not expect to give up their mandate. It is not ruled out that changes in the law will be required to allow the deputies to keep their jobs. But Kommersant's interlocutors believe that parliamentarians who want to go to the zone of a special military operation will most likely do this as part of vacation trips or business trips, as was the case before partial mobilization.

Shortly after the announcement of partial mobilization by the President on September 21, Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin at a plenary session urged the deputies to ask themselves what they can do and what kind of assistance to the country from them would be effective. He proposed to study which of the employees of the apparatus of the lower house and deputies can be in demand at the front, who has military skills and wants to take part in a special operation. The speaker stressed that "the deputies have no armor."

We note that, according to Art. 18 of the law on mobilization training and mobilization in Russia, a deferment from conscription for military service for mobilization is granted to senators and deputies of the State Duma.

On the same day, United Russia Yuri Shvytkin, who participated in the war in Chechnya, announced his readiness to go to war in Ukraine from the rostrum. However, according to the Secretary of the General Council of the United Russia Andrey Turchak, in his Telegram channel, a written statement from the deputy has not yet been received. Mr. Turchak said that he received applications from several Duma deputies with a request to send them to serve in the NVO zone as part of the RF Armed Forces: these are the head of the health protection committee Dmitry Khubezov, deputy head of the defense committee Dmitry Sablin, deputy head of the family committee Vitaly Milonov, deputy head Committee on Economic Policy Sergey Sokol, as well as Oleg Kolesnikov and Deputy Head of the Committee on CIS Affairs Alexander Boroday (there are 325 deputies in the faction). According to Mr. Turchak, their applications will be considered by the Ministry of Defense. “We will discuss the details with everyone who has made such a decision for themselves, where possible - together we will decide on the performance of their duties during their absence ... The desire to go to the front, postponing the deputy or senatorial mandate, is serving the Fatherland in the current circumstances,”— United Russia said. The question of what will be the format of their participation in the NWO is "still being decided," an interlocutor in the party explained to Kommersant.

Viacheslav Volodin noted that since the beginning of the SVO, United Russia members Adam Delimkhanov, who heads the units of Chechen volunteers, Viktor Vodolatsky, Akhmed Dogaev and others, have also been in the Donbass as part of business trips or vacations.

As previously reported by Kommersant, deputies of all factions during their summer vacation actively visited Donbass on a humanitarian mission.

So far, only Stanislav Naumov has filed an application for self-mobilization in the LDPR, according to Telegram channel parties.

The mandate for him will remain, clarified the interlocutor of Kommersant in the party: "Where the people are, there are people's deputies, all within the framework of work with citizens." According to him, “it is still being decided” what the deputy will do at the front. Mr. Naumov told Kommersant that it is unlikely that the deputies will hand over their mandates, most likely, other formats for their participation in the NVO will be found: “In society, it is more likely that there are not such expectations that the deputies are the best shooters, but that the Duma as a whole be mobilized to control all stages of the mobilization of citizens. This is not about the fact that the deputy got on the train at the Kievsky railway station and disappeared, ”he explained. Party leader Leonid Slutsky said from the Duma rostrum that the deputies have something to do in the Duma: "There are tasks that need to be completed in a daily format."

The press services of the other three Duma parties "Kommersant" did not provide information on the number of deputies wishing to mobilize.

The deputy of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the press secretary of the party leader Alexander Yushchenko, told Kommersant that the press will learn about the communists who went to the front only "at best, if they are awarded or if, God forbid, they die." “Those who go there do it in silence,” Mr. Yushchenko said. In his opinion, people whose skills can be useful should go to the front line, and not those who "just want to come and take a picture."

A Just Russia - For Truth deputy Dmitry Kuznetsov told Kommersant that he "will go if called." The deputy added that his military specialty is an epidemiologist of especially dangerous infections. When asked if he was going to volunteer, he replied that "doing something for the sake of populism is wrong." His faction colleague Yana Lantratova understands that the deputies “have obligations to the voters”, but “if there is a need to go to participate in the SVO”, then she will go. According to her, the deputies "can be useful in hospitals, distribute humanitarian aid, help the wounded, take out children, work with residents, teachers and other jobs that do not require special training."

According to a source close to the leadership of the Duma, there are more statements from deputies about their readiness to participate in the SVO received by the speaker than were announced by the leadership of the parties. The same Mr. Shvytkin wrote several of them, Vyacheslav Volodin said. According to one source in the Duma, during the conversations of deputies wishing to mobilize with the leadership of the chamber, “they were asked to surrender their mandate.” Although an interlocutor close to the leadership of the Duma says that the position on this matter is still being formed: the deputies will have to discuss whether it is necessary to adjust the legislation so that they can maintain the mandate in the event of going to the front, otherwise they will be able to do this only as part of vacations, business trips or after the mandate has been given.

It was important for the State Duma to debunk the myth about the "untouchables," notes political scientist Pavel Sklyanchuk.

“First, the deputies express their desire to the authorities — Volodin or, for example, Turchak,” he explained. “Then the issue of satisfying the petition is somehow discussed with the Ministry of Defense. If approval is received, then an application for leave is written, and they must be sent to the front. But there is a high probability that for some reason they will not be released.” According to the expert, it is important not to overdo it with a demonstration of fighting spirit: "As the first days of mobilization showed, work with the elimination of legal gaps - the immediate task of parliamentarians - is no end."

Maria Makutina, Ksenia Veretennikova



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