Motivation for mobilization – Newspaper Kommersant No. 178 (7379) of 09/27/2022

The State Duma this week plans to consider several initiatives related to the support of Russians mobilized to participate in a special military operation in Ukraine. The most notable of these proposals concern the retention of the mobilized their former jobs and the provision of credit vacations for the duration of their service.

On Tuesday, the State Duma will consider a bill on saving jobs for citizens called up for military service as part of partial mobilization, and for volunteers participating in a special military operation (SVO) under a contract, the Council of the Duma made such a decision on Monday. The initiative involves changing the Labor Code, the law “On the State Civil Service” and other documents.

“As a result, norms will appear, according to which, for these categories of citizens, the employment contract will be suspended until the end of military service. After that, they will be able to return to their previous duties within three months,” said Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR), head of the Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy.

Additional labor guarantees are also provided for family members of mobilized and volunteers: they will not be forced to be sent on business trips and involved in overtime work, and in the event of a reduction in staff, they will have an advantage.

Citizens who entered into contracts for military service in the period from February 24 to September 21, 2022, with whom employment contracts were terminated, will receive “the preferential right to employment for work in a previously occupied position.” “Thus, the issues of maintaining jobs will be resolved in relation to all categories of working citizens who are called up or voluntarily enter military service during partial mobilization,” concluded Vasily Piskarev, head of the State Duma Security Committee (United Russia).

The Duma also plans to consider bill on providing the participants of the SVO credit holidayssubmitted by a group of deputies and senators to the lower house on 23 September.

Holidays can mean both a complete suspension of the borrower’s performance of its obligations for the period of the special operation, and a reduction in the amount of payments during the grace period. In the event of the death of a member of the SVO, the obligations under the loan are terminated, but subject to the limits that will be determined by the government and the Central Bank.

“It is proposed to provide credit holidays for the entire period of combat missions, the law on credit holidays will be in effect for almost the entire period of the special operation. For the time being, we are prescribing the norms until December 31, 2023, we hope that everything will end sooner,” one of the authors of the bill, chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov (“A Just Russia – For Truth”) optimistically noted at a press conference on Monday.— But even if the special operation is completed earlier and our citizens return to civilian life, they will have the opportunity until December 31, 2023 to apply for such credit holidays to be provided if they have not done so before.”

Another bill about payments and benefits mobilized citizens were submitted to the Duma on September 24 by a group of deputies headed by the chairman of the Committee on Family, Women and Children, Nina Ostanina (KPRF).

Among their proposals are a lump sum payment of 300 thousand rubles, exemption from interest on consumer and mortgage loans, the provision of compensation for housing and communal services, the payment of a monthly allowance for children, etc.

The deputies also propose to provide deferment from the call for mobilization citizens who are the only specialists in rural areas, as well as a parent, brother or sister of a disabled child, if he or she is the only breadwinner in the family.

In the financial and economic justification for the bill, its authors admit that it will require expenditures from the federal budget, but since the consideration of the draft budget-2023 in the Duma is still pending, the chamber will have “the opportunity to determine the required amount of expenditure and include it in the expenditure part of the budget” . Nina Ostanina told Kommersant that the bill has not yet been included in the agenda of the next meetings, but has been sent to the government for conclusion. “I’m going to seek inclusion of our initiatives in the agenda when the government introduces its bills to supplement them. But so far the government has not made a single proposal,” the deputy said.

Finally, on September 12, a group of United Russia members headed by Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, submitted billallowing citizens with three or more children to enter the mobilization human reserve, if they have such a desire. “Currently, this category of citizens is subject to unconditional exemption from conscription for military training, that is, they cannot be called up for military training, regardless of their will, and, accordingly, they cannot conclude a contract to stay in the reserve, although, as shown practice, many would like to do this, ”the explanatory note says. The Duma plans to consider the bill in November.

Plenary sessions of the State Duma this week are scheduled for September 27 and 28, and on September 29 an additional meeting of the council of the chamber will take place. Kommersant’s interlocutor in the Duma did not rule out that an additional plenary session would also be held on Thursday or Friday.

Ksenia Veretennikova, Maria Makutina