Deputies opened the autumn session of the State Duma with disputes about elections and the establishment of a new holiday

The State Duma held the first plenary meeting of the autumn session on Tuesday. The speaker of the chamber, Vyacheslav Volodin, and the leaders of the factions, in their speeches, outlined the tasks for the coming months and spoke about the completed election campaign. At the same time, the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov differed in his assessment of the elections with three colleagues at once, and the head of the Duma United Russia members Vladimir Vasiliev argued with the head of A Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP) Sergei Mironov on the issue of indexing pensions for working pensioners. But the amendments to introduce a new memorable date – the Day of Reunification of New Regions with Russia – were adopted unanimously by the deputies.

Opening the autumn session, Vyacheslav Volodin recalled that during the holidays the work of deputies did not stop: off-site meetings were held, 105 bills were introduced. In total, the Duma’s legislative portfolio includes 1,013 initiatives. According to Mr. Volodin, the priority in the work of the chamber remains the support of participants in the special military operation (SVO) and members of their families. The speaker also recalled that before October 1, a draft of a new federal budget will be submitted to the Duma and “it is important that it responds to the challenges that our country faces” and resolves “development issues.” In addition, Vyacheslav Volodin reported that the plan for legislative support of the president’s message was completed by 82% (59 laws have been adopted, six remain to be adopted), and from the elections he especially noted the first vote in the new territories, which, in his opinion, was held “competitively, openly, legitimate.”

The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov assessed the results of the campaign not so positively: “Elections continue to be held according to a scheme that is worse than 1996.” Separately, he spoke about violations in Khakassia and said that the party does not recognize the voting results in the Altai Territory, where “Masha Prusakova, a talented deputy, was not even allowed to participate in the gubernatorial elections (a State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation did not pass the municipal filter.— “Kommersant”)”. Mr. Zyuganov did not forget to remind about the alternative “development budget” prepared by his party, wishing Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, “who shouldered all the dirty work,” to “take a closer look” at the initiatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

The leader of the communists was immediately answered by the chairman of the LDPR, Leonid Slutsky: “It’s not a disgrace that in Ivanovo the LDPR became the second political force, people voted for the LDPR. We won a landslide victory and are in the trend of the second political force in the country.”

Mr. Slutsky called “not to criticize the 2023 campaign,” since all parties are “for the sound ideas of the President of Russia, for the country and for our quick victory.”

The head of the SRZP, Sergei Mironov, spoke about the initiative of the Social Revolutionaries to introduce a single social standard for participants in the SVO and a single certificate for rehabilitation, and also called for “returning the conscientious retirement age – for men 60 years old, for women 55 years old” and proposed paying all pensioners the 13th pension before New Year. At the same time, he complained that the government would not dare to index pensions for working pensioners: “If for some reason it cannot be carried out, then let’s exempt them from personal income tax in order to help them at least a little with this.” In addition, the party member promised that the SRZP, like the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, would traditionally prepare an alternative budget, and touched upon the topic of migration: “I am absolutely convinced that without the introduction of a visa regime with the countries of Central Asia, we will soon have serious problems.”

The leader of the “New People” Alexey Nechaev also considered it necessary to respond to Gennady Zyuganov’s remark about the 1996 elections, which the head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation lost to then-President Boris Yeltsin. “In 1996, the elections were rigged, the victory was stolen. This definitely didn’t happen this year,” he assured. Although observers from New People “recorded some violations,” and the party filed “a little more than ten lawsuits.” In addition, Mr. Nechaev called on his colleagues to “do without new bans and fines” during the autumn session: “I think it’s time to stop with this prohibitive line. We all said today that we need a development budget, but the logic of development does not fit with the logic of prohibitions and excessive control.”

And when adopting the budget, according to the deputy, it is necessary to reduce costs for digitalization and new large-scale construction projects: “We will do this later, everything has its time. Now there are other priorities, and this is not only the SVO. First of all, we need to invest in education and medicine.”

Finally, the head of the United Russia Duma, Vladimir Vasiliev, during his speech addressed Gennady Zyuganov several times, defending the past elections, which gave United Russia an increase of “a million voters.” At the same time, he thanked the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for his participation in the international activities of the Duma and trips to countries where “the Communist Party is remembered and appreciated.” United Russia also argued with the idea of ​​indexing pensions for working pensioners: “With all due respect, I am also a working pensioner, like those who raise this topic. Do I need to raise my pension? It’s embarrassing to even talk about this topic.”

However, when voting for the first autumn bill, the deputies forgot about their differences, unanimously supporting the president’s initiative to establish a new memorable date on September 30 – “The Day of Reunification of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions with Russia” (on this day a year ago agreements on the entry of four regions into the Russian Federation). In addition, the Duma prematurely terminated the powers of two United Russia members – Igor Kastyukevich and Sergei Sokol – on the basis of their personal statements. Both deputies were elected to regional parliaments (Kherson region and Khakassia, respectively) and intend to change jobs.

Ksenia Veretennikova