Senators argued about professional

The anti-corruption amendments initiated by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation may lead to the resignation of one of the creators of the “Crimean Spring”, the head of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, who has been permanent since 2010. This became clear on Wednesday during a discussion in the Federation Council of a law allowing not to publish declarations of State Duma deputies and senators. One of the clauses of this document forbids the speakers of regional parliaments to work on an unreleased basis, and Mr. Konstantinov, who also does not receive a deputy’s salary, does not agree with such a requirement, as it turned out.

The Federation Council (SF) on February 1 approved a law that effectively cancels the declaration of income for regional deputies working on a non-professional basis, and allows not to publish information about the income and property of State Duma deputies and senators. The document, which was actively discussed last week, again became the subject of discussion – however, this time the attention of the senators was attracted not by the issues of declaration, but by the amendment submitted for the second reading, according to which only a deputy working on a professional basis can be the chairman of the legislative assembly of the region.

“Valentina Ivanovna, I have the following question: in general, how many chairmen of regional parliaments work on a non-professional basis?” Crimean senator Sergey Tsekov asked the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, waiting for the speaker to finish presenting the bill. “I don’t know,” Ms. Matviyenko honestly admitted. “I know,” Mr. Tsekov hurried to enlighten the audience. “Three!” And he said that he would not support the law because of this amendment, since it was directed personally against the chairman of the State Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov.

“As far as I know, this amendment received a negative conclusion from the State Legal Administration of the President,” Sergei Tsekov continued. “The government and the State Duma apparatus issued conclusions according to which this amendment was not supported. The essence of the conclusion is the status of a deputy, the procedure for carrying out deputy activities and its organization is determined by the constitution, charter or law of the subject. The senator is convinced that the adoption of such amendments will mean the loss of an effective leader for Crimea. “Such a decision will negatively affect the work of the Crimean parliament as a whole, the balance and balance of all branches of power in the republic,” Mr. Tsekov warned.

Chairmen of legislative assemblies working on a non-professional basis are not only in Crimea, the senator noted. But the controversial amendment, he insisted, was “deliberately” directed against Vladimir Konstantinov and proposed by his opponents in Crimea through the Communist Party faction in the State Duma. Sergey Tsekov recalled the merits of Mr. Konstantinov in the integration of Crimea into the Russian legal field and the “huge patriotic work” carried out by the speaker: in particular, he built a memorial to the victims of the fascist occupation, which became the main platform for patriotic education in the region.

“Somehow you got carried away, I’m sorry,” Valentina Matvienko reacted to the Senator’s demarche. “We really appreciate Konstantinov, and let him work, but I think: the chairman of the regional parliament should be engaged in professionally freed work, bearing such a huge responsibility. And what about the political struggle here? “This is not a speech I invented,” Mr. Tsekov honestly admitted, to which the speaker noted with satisfaction that she thought so. The discussion was closed by Andrey Klishas, ​​Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on State Construction, who recalled that, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the issues of organizing the public authority of the subject belong to joint jurisdiction. “Therefore, of course, the legislator has the right to establish the norm about which we are now discussing,” he summed up.

It should be noted that the leader of the Legislative Assembly, who works on a non-professional basis, is rather an exception than a rule, although so far such an opportunity has been provided for by the legislation of 11 regions. For example, in the Tula region, an unreleased deputy headed the regional duma in 2020, after the early resignation of his predecessor. To do this, parliamentarians had to urgently amend the regional legislation, allowing their future chairman to work on a free basis.

As Sergei Tsekov told Kommersant, in the light of new events, Vladimir Konstantinov does not exclude that he will be forced to leave the post of speaker: “I asked him yesterday: well, will you have to leave? He replied that he would have to leave. That is, in 2024 he will not run for the post of chairman of the State Council. That’s why I showed up. For Crimea, this is a big loss. We will have to convince him to find an opportunity to work in a new format.”

In the early nineties, Vladimir Konstantinov founded the Konsol group of construction companies, and later the Ukrrosbud corporation, which were engaged in the construction of apartment buildings and shopping centers. Before the annexation of Crimea to Russia, he was a permanent participant in the ranking of the richest citizens of Ukraine. The powers of the head of the corporation, Mr. Konstantinov, resigned before being elected Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in 2010, and he refused the deputy salary in the summer of 2021, explaining that he came into politics from business “as a man who has already taken place financially” and “has long sought to such a decision. At the end of 2021, the speaker declared income almost three times more than a year earlier – 67.9 million rubles. Vladimir Konstantinov did not promptly answer Kommersant’s questions about the sources of his income and why he would not be able to continue working as a speaker on a professional basis.

The leader of the Crimean Communists, Sergei Bogatyrenko, confirmed to Kommersant that, together with his colleagues, he approached the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Construction, Yuri Sinelshchikov (KPRF), with the initiative to introduce an appropriate restriction for the heads of legislative assemblies, but it did not work out as a separate law, so they approved it later in the form amendments. “Of course, they (comrades-in-arms of speaker Konstantinov.— “b”) will be opposed. There is a conflict of interest when one of the top leaders of Crimea does not receive money for his work, but has the right to do business, ”the communist emphasized.

Anastasia Kornya; Alexander Dremlyugin, Simferopol