Party plans for the people – Newspaper Kommersant No. 167 (7368) of 09/12/2022

On Tuesday, the State Duma will host the first plenary session of the autumn session. In addition to the main autumn document – the draft federal budget for next year, the deputies plan to consider several high-profile documents that were postponed earlier or submitted during the summer holidays.

Officially, the second autumn session of the eighth convocation of the State Duma will open at the first plenary session on September 13 (formally, it started on August 30, when the deputies began a two-week work in the regions). The parliamentarians have already prepared a program of legislative work of the committees for this session (it is posted on the Duma website). Traditionally, the main document to be adopted in the fall is the budget, which the deputies will deal with in October. In addition, the Duma plans to consider projects that have passed from the last session and even from the last convocation, as well as “summer” initiatives.

One of the most significant bills, the consideration of which in the spring session was postponed until autumn, is a new version of the law on local self-government, introduced in December 2021 by the heads of the State Construction Committees of the Duma and the Federation Council Pavel Krasheninnikov and Andrey Klishas. The document passed the first reading on February 25, after which the Duma began to receive numerous amendments to the second reading. As Kommersant’s Duma interlocutors explained, in the spring there was “no time for him,” especially considering the norm that caused a lot of controversy on the transition to a one-level system of local self-government with urban and municipal districts (current urban and rural settlements should join them). In the program for the session, the document is for November.

At the end of the spring session, a bill of parliamentarians from the commissions of the two chambers on combating foreign interference was adopted in the first reading, which prohibits foreign agents from organizing mass actions, and at the same time expands the list of places prohibited for holding any public events (it includes, for example, railway stations , playgrounds, territories of public authorities and many others). This document, which was sharply criticized by the communists, the deputies intend to deal with in September.

At the end of the session, the Duma plans to return to the draft, which will oblige conscripts to appear at the military registration and enlistment office without personally receiving a summons: it was adopted in the first reading back in 2018, the second reading was held at the end of February 2022, and the third is planned for December. The deputies did not forget about the amendments, involving the introduction of a coronavirus vaccine into the National Vaccination Calendar: they were adopted in the first reading last summer, but postponed due to public outcry. This initiative may also be considered in December.

Another high-profile bill awaiting its second reading is on a single operator of digital advertising structures, introduced shortly after the official end of the spring session by United Russia member Artem Kiryanov. In the first reading, it was adopted at an extraordinary meeting on July 15. The Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Association of Electronic Communications, the governments of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Avito company and others have previously spoken out against the adoption of the initiative in its current form. The author of the amendments assures that there is no question of monopolizing the advertising market, and the project is needed to protect billboards and ad services from cyber attacks. In August, the Duma extended the deadline for collecting amendments until September 9, but there is no document in the program of work of the committees yet.

Also in the fall, the deputies will take up bills to ban information that promotes non-traditional sexual relations. In July, deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia – For the Truth, headed by Nina Ostanina, chairperson of the family committee, proposed including “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” in the list of prohibited information and establishing a direct ban on issuing cinemas a distribution certificate for any films containing the relevant propaganda. Then a group of members of the committee on information policy, headed by its chairman, United Russia Alexander Khinshtein, prepared, but has not yet submitted, their document, which, in their opinion, is more comprehensive. The deputies propose to amend the current article of the Code of Administrative Offenses by extending the ban on “non-traditional” propaganda to citizens of all ages and significantly increasing the fines for this violation. The bill has been sent to the government for review, and in the autumn the committee is ready to hold its open public discussion.

In addition, the program for December includes high-profile projects submitted to the State Duma in the last convocation. For example, the Information Policy Committee plans to work on a draft to limit foreign ownership in news aggregators, which was adopted on first reading in December 2018, and on an initiative to limit foreign participation in significant Internet resources, introduced in July 2019.

Maria Makutina