Large families were not allowed out of the queue

Two resonant documents were immediately considered by the State Duma at a plenary session on Thursday. The deputies, without further discussion, adopted in the second reading the bill on the ban on gender reassignment, and immediately in the second and third readings, amendments tightening the current legislation on foreign agents. At the same time, the bill of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the provision of social housing to large families as a matter of priority caused heated discussion, but was rejected by the Duma majority.

The meeting on July 13 opened with a traditional speech by representatives of the factions on the current agenda. Dmitry Gusev (SRZP) touched upon the most sensitive topic, reminding his colleagues about the rebellion of PMC “Wagner”. “After the roaring nineties, we got used to living in a safe country, we knew and we know that our law enforcement agencies, our military will always protect us,” the deputy began. And then he outlined six points (including SMS briefing in case of emergencies and the distribution of “dronoboys” to private security companies and the Ministry of Internal Affairs), which, in his opinion, could correct the public security system.

Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin appreciated the SR’s zeal, but noted that a number of proposals (transfer of heavy weapons to the National Guard, “stitching” the network of city cameras into a single network) have already been completed or are being carried out. “The proposals are good and meaningful, maybe we have a drawback when not all of us know what is being done and has already been done,” he summed up.

Talk about how much has been done while working on gender reassignment bill (with the exception of cases related to “treatment of congenital physiological anomalies of sex formation in children”), the deputies had no need. The head of the health committee, Badma Bashankaev (United Russia), presenting the document for the second reading, thanked the Duma for its indifference on this issue and spoke about new amendments, according to which gender reassignment will become the basis for annulment of marriage and an obstacle to adoption and guardianship. In the second reading, the bill was adopted unanimously – the deputies met their own unanimity with applause – and will be submitted to the third reading on Friday.

Another resonant bill – on the prohibition of assistance to foreign agents in their attempts to circumvent the restrictions established by law – the deputies considered and adopted immediately in the second and third readings. The original version of the document was supplemented with amendments on unscheduled inspections of potential “accomplices” of foreign agents based on complaints from an almost unlimited circle of people, as well as a ban on the agents themselves from receiving financial or property state support, “including when carrying out creative activities.” Immediately in two readings, the Duma also approved amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses, which provide for fines for citizens (up to 50 thousand rubles), officials (up to 100 thousand rubles) and organizations (up to 300 thousand rubles) for such “aiding”. “An example of such assistance to bypass our legislation can be the admission of a foreign agent to teach at a state university, the allocation of state grants to foreign agents, and so on,” explained Vasily Piskarev, one of the authors of the initiative (United Russia).

Somewhat more lively was the discussion of several draft laws in the first reading – in particular, on the deployment of communication facilities and facilities, separate detention in pre-trial detention centers suspected of terrorist crimes, and on tariff setting for electricity in the regions of the Far East and the Arctic zone.

But the most protracted discussion was caused by the bill submitted to the Duma last spring by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the provision of social housing to large families as a matter of priority.

“Such a provision was in effect in the Soviet Union, then the Housing Code completely excluded this category from those who have the right to qualify for priority provision of housing under a social contract,” reported Aleksey Kurinny, co-author of the initiative. “Today, there is not even such an institution as priority provision. “. Oddly enough, Pavel Kachkaev (United Russia) pointed out the same fact, explaining why his faction cannot support this initiative. “If it was necessary for us to adopt a bill, we need to give the concept of a “large family” at the federal level, give the concept of “priority”, at least estimate how many families with many children we need!” – listed the missing United Russia. Nina Ostanina (KPRF), the head of the Committee on Family Affairs, urged colleagues to quickly deal with conflicts and begin to reason meaningfully with colleagues. “I understand that if the conclusions of the committees are already there and they are negative, the majority will vote against it,” she said. “But someday we must take the first step towards showing real concern for large families.”

However, things have not yet come to this step: the initiative of the Communists was supported by only 105 deputies, with the necessary minimum of 226 votes.

Grigory Leiba