Different amounts in one trench – Kommersant Samara

The deputies of the Ulyanovsk region have prepared an appeal to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin with a proposal to introduce a faster unified system of one-time payments to soldiers called up for partial mobilization, so that even subsidized regions could support the families of those mobilized in the initial period. The Ulyanovsk region was among 32 regions in which there are no one-time payments for mobilized people. Earlier, the governor of the region, Aleksey Russkikh, noted that it is not normal when soldiers from different regions sit in the same trench, but some have such payments, others do not. State Duma deputies note that they have already directly asked these questions to the government of the Russian Federation, they agree with the formulation of the question, but nothing has changed so far.

Last Monday, the Social Policy Committee of the Legislative Assembly of the Ulyanovsk Region agreed with the proposal of the Communist Party faction to send an appeal to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin with a request to introduce a standard for all regions to provide financial support to mobilized citizens, taking into account the allocation of federal funds for these purposes for subsidized regions.

The appeal notes that the deputies receive a large number of appeals from the mobilized and their families “with questions about the amount of financial support.” Noting that the availability of such financial support for families is an important component of the successful conduct of a special military operation, the deputies draw attention to the fact that richer regions have established different amounts of a lump sum payment to the mobilized, while subsidized regions cannot do this, “the size and effectiveness of support directly depend on the level of budgetary security and the degree of debt load in the region”. “Such differentiation not only puts the mobilized citizens in an unequal position, but is also directly dangerous, as it affects the combat and psychological mood of the servicemen,” the draft appeal notes.

The Communist Party faction tried to introduce the issue of sending an appeal to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation on Friday, at a meeting of the Legislative Assembly, but they were not given the floor, the issue was not put on the agenda, citing the need to comply with the regulations and preliminarily consider the appeal at a meeting of the relevant committee. Noting that such issues are urgent, the faction left the meeting in protest. The first vice-speaker, the leader of the United Russia faction, Vasily Gvozdev, said that “yes, the regional budget is bad,” but about the possibility of paying 50,000 rubles to those mobilized. The faction had previously addressed the chairman of the regional government, promising that it was ready to quickly make the necessary changes to the budget. “But we are not turning to Mishustin, we are asking inside and sorting things out,” the vice speaker noted.

A non-factional deputy, a constant opponent of the governor, Matvey Volodarsky, stating that the Ulyanovsk region is “the only region that did not provide any support to the mobilized”, insisted that “there is money”, it is only necessary to “suspend at least one regional project and redistribute funds”.

The chairman of the government of the region, Vladimir Razumkov, said in response that “it’s wrong to say: there is no support”, “there are both tax benefits and social payments for the mobilized”, today the amount of funds allocated from the budget to support military personnel is 236 million rubles. ”, of which 100 million rubles are payments to registered volunteer battalions – 300 thousand rubles each. for each, 63 million rubles – the cost of the region for the equipment of the mobilized, about 20 thousand rubles. for each”, and “payments to the families of the victims are also possible, and this will be a multiple of what has already been announced.” Vice-Governor for Domestic Policy Alexander Korobko drew attention to the fact that, unlike many other regions, the Ulyanovsk region has to spend 2.3 billion rubles only on servicing the public debt. (with a total volume of regional budget revenues for 2023 of 81.406 billion rubles, it is expected that the public debt by the end of 2023 will amount to 55.022 billion rubles – 91% of the region’s own revenues).

It should be noted that according to the data received in the State Duma (as of the middle of last week), out of 89 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, decisions on various types of payments to mobilized people are in place, while in 32 regions no lump-sum payments are provided. So, in Moscow, it was decided to pay mobilized 50 thousand rubles. monthly, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and in the Sakhalin Region, a lump sum payment is 300 thousand rubles, in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – 250 thousand rubles. (plus another 250 thousand rubles after the completion of the SVO), in five regions the lump sum payment is 200 thousand rubles, in 25 regions – 100 thousand rubles each, in 11 regions – 50 thousand rubles each. In a number of regions (Tatarstan, Tuva, Amur Region), lump-sum payments of 5–20 thousand rubles have been introduced. for each child from the mobilized family.

According to the chairman of the committee on social policy, Sergei Sherstnev, the members of the committee agreed in principle with the draft appeal from the Communist Party faction, but decided that it “needs to be finalized”, its final adoption is scheduled for November 7, then to be submitted to the plenary session on November 9. The leader of the Communist Party faction, Vitaly Kuzin, believes that all this is “an unacceptably long procedure for an urgent issue.”

Two weeks ago, at a cabinet meeting, Governor of the region Aleksey Russkikh noted that “it’s absolutely wrong when fighters sit side by side in a trench, and receive different payments”, “this issue is of interest to all mobilized”, “the issue is extremely tense”, “it is necessary to raise at the federal level. The governor instructed the chairman of the government to “work out this issue.”

It was not possible to find out specifically the point of view of Alexei Russkikh regarding the statements of the deputies and the possibilities of the regional budget on Wednesday: the press secretary of the governor Valery Baibusinov told Kommersant that “the issue is still being worked out, opportunities are being sought.”

State Duma deputy Alexei Kurinny told Kommersant that he had already raised the issue at a meeting of the State Duma. “On October 18, I already spoke in the State Duma that it is necessary to form a single standard of social support measures for all those mobilized so that there is no difference, especially when they are sitting in the same trenches. And this issue must be resolved, including with the direction of the missing funds from the federal budget to those entities that have weak financial indicators. Everyone agreed that it was necessary, Finance Minister Siluanov was also there, government representatives supported the concept, everyone nodded their heads, but United Russia rejected the draft instruction on the need to appeal to the government of the Russian Federation on this matter, ”said the deputy.

Sergey Titov, Ulyanovsk