Parliamentarians are ready for acceleration

On Thursday, the Presidium of the Council of Legislators discussed with the ministers of labor and education topical issues of protecting the rights of mobilized people and the spiritual and moral development of citizens. The parliamentarians stated that a number of important government initiatives in this area, including those related to the special military operation (SVO), are being coordinated for too long, so they need to be “accelerated” and adopted “by a roundabout way” – through amendments to the second reading of the bills. At the same time, some fundamental problems, such as the fight against neo-Nazism, require the development of a separate law.

The meeting of the Presidium of the Council of Legislators was opened by First Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Andrei Yatskin and Vice Speaker of the State Duma Irina Yarovaya. Mr. Yatskin said that the government should learn to conduct a dialogue with the younger generation, “and conduct this dialogue in an understandable language”: “It is necessary that the guys know the true reasons for the start of the NWO and understand what Russia is fighting for today.” The senator called for the development of military-historical tourism, since “there is no region without a hero, and every feat should become a tourist route.”

Mrs. Yarovaya, in turn, recalled that the law on criminal liability for the rehabilitation of Nazism would soon be ten years old. And if earlier “there was a heated discussion about whether this law was needed, then, looking back, we understand that not only this law was needed, but a program to counter Nazism.” “The whole country – Ukraine – was under the influence of a new aggressive ideology,” the deputy complained.

However, “the immersion of the topic of Nazism into extremism created problems of rapid response,” therefore Irina Yarovaya suggested “going to the working group to prepare a law on counteracting Nazism and neo-Nazism.”

The speaker on the first issue was Minister of Labor and Social Protection Anton Kotyakov. He spoke about the latest legislative innovations in terms of supporting volunteers and those mobilized, as well as some of the nuances of their pension provision: “The fact of participation in the SVO is not reflected in the work book. Period of participation (in SVO.— “b”) in the length of service is taken into account as a day for two. According to the minister, the allowance and one-time assistance are not taken into account in the income of the family of military personnel when calculating benefits, but “if the mobilized person had no income, then this is also not an obstacle to receiving support measures.”

Deputy Defense Minister Tatyana Shevtsova said that according to the current law, military pensions are not paid during service, and therefore “amendments are being prepared that will preserve the pension.” Ms. Shevtsova added that this document is under interdepartmental coordination and will soon be submitted to the lower chamber, but it was difficult to specify when exactly.

“The State Duma is ready to consider these issues as soon as possible, let’s speed up this work,” Irina Yarovaya responded. “Long government regulations are rather an obstacle.” The idea was developed by Yaroslav Nilov, chairman of the Duma labor committee, who proposed amending the military pension to a draft law on a similar topic that had already been adopted in the first reading.

“You can insert an amendment there, this is a short amendment, and the issue will be resolved,” the deputy assured and added: “We know the workarounds.” “Technology,” Andrey Yatskin corrected him with a laugh. “Let’s not reveal all the secrets.”

The chairman of the Ivanovo Regional Duma, Marina Dmitrieva, gave statistics on the support of families mobilized in various subjects. According to her, in 60% of the regions, the children of the mobilized are provided with free hot meals, in 52% of the parents are exempted from paying for kindergartens, almost a third of the regions have introduced payments to students. “It is very important that payments are not taken into account on average per capita income,” she stressed. Anton Kotyakov, in response, assured that the preparation of the relevant bill is “at the final stage.”

The report on the second issue was made by Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov. He noted the importance of the military-historical heritage and spoke about the best practices for its preservation, for example, about the All-Russian forum of school directors who bear the names of the Heroes of Russia and the Soviet Union, as well as about the creation of a “national pantheon of heroes”. According to the minister, until recently, a Eurocentric approach “dominated” in the school history course, so this “distortion” must be “necessarily eradicated.” In the new program, the courses of world and national history will be combined, Mr. Kravtsov added: “Russia should become the bearing rod.”

After the meeting of the presidium, a plenary meeting of the Council of Legislators took place, but it was held behind closed doors, and only its introductory part was broadcast to the press.

Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko began it with questions of support for mobilized and new subjects, and ended with an expression of confidence that the West is coming to the realization: “they can’t go anywhere without Russia.”

“It’s so nice that yesterday the opening of the opera season at the Milan theater began with Russian opera, with Mussorgsky’s opera,” Ms. Matviyenko explained her thought. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, in turn, reiterated that the government does not shift the financial burden onto the population, although the situation “today is more difficult” than in the nineties and zero years. According to him, “the economic model makes it possible to effectively face the challenges,” but subsidized regions should strive for self-sufficiency. And Mr. Volodin ended his speech with a quote from Confucius: “If you want to change the world, start with yourself.”

Andrew Ashes