Perm deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was deprived of his mandate after criticizing the SVO

The Perm City Duma on Tuesday terminated the powers of deputy Sergei Medvedev, elected on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who had previously criticized the special operation and left the country. The reason was his statement about leaving the Communist Party faction, which, by law, automatically entails the deprivation of his mandate. Mr. Medvedev himself claims that he did not write such a statement.

Initially, the item on terminating the powers of Sergei Medvedev was not on the agenda of the City Duma meeting on January 23. The head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction, Ilya Vlasov, raised the issue of changing the composition of the faction, explaining that Mr. Medvedev wrote a statement of resignation from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction, which was considered and approved on January 13. Next, the communist put on the agenda the issue of depriving Mr. Medvedev of his parliamentary powers, citing the federal law “On the General Principles of the Organization of Local Self-Government”: a deputy elected according to party lists must be deprived of his mandate within 30 days after leaving the faction. Perm prosecutor Egor Shmyrin confirmed that, according to Art. 35.1 of the mentioned law, a “list member” does not have the right to leave the faction that he represents, therefore the statement of Sergei Medvedev is an unconditional basis for the termination of his parliamentary powers. Mr. Medvedev himself was not present at the City Duma meeting, informing the apparatus that he was on a business trip.

Let us recall that at the end of 2023, Sergei Medvedev published a post on one of the social networks, where he stated that he was not celebrating the New Year because of the fighting in Ukraine, and also called for an end to the SVO. On January 20, he told reporters that after the New Year holidays he flew first to Kazakhstan and then to Tbilisi. Meanwhile, the Perm City Duma sent an appeal to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and law enforcement agencies with a request to give a political and legal assessment of the deputy’s statements.

Mr. Medvedev himself told Kommersant that he did not write a statement about leaving the faction, and “a deputy on the party list does not lose his mandate when leaving the faction for one reason or another.”

He did not substantiate this statement, however, with any legal provisions. Mr. Medvedev did not disclose his future plans.

The secretary of the Perm regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Ksenia Aitakova, explained to Ura.ru that the application from Sergei Medvedev was received “a long time ago”, it was simply considered only now. She did not name the exact date, but assured that it was “exactly before the release of the boorish post criticizing the SVO.”

Sergei Medvedev is 52 years old, he was one of the organizers of the public movement “Parents Bloc”, in 2020 he went out with a picket to the walls of the Kremlin to draw attention to the problem of school fees, in 2021 he was elected to the Perm City Duma on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. He is not the first deputy of the Perm City Duma to leave the country after the start of the SVO: in 2022, United Russia member Sergei Zakharov left for Germany, who from there began to criticize the special operation, was expelled from the United Russia faction, and in April 2023 sent a statement to parliament for early termination of powers.

All 33 deputies present at the meeting ultimately voted to deprive Sergei Medvedev of his mandate.

United Russia member Irina Gorbunova thanked the Communist Party of the Russian Federation “for making unprecedented decisions.” Summing up the meeting, City Duma Speaker Dmitry Malyutin (ER) stated that he considered the adoption of this decision “important, relevant and fair”: “A person who does not support the ideology of our state cannot be a deputy. Today, our common unity and focus on achieving the goals set by the country’s leadership is more important than ever.”

Irina Sukhanova, Perm