Senators were missing in the fall – Newspaper Kommersant No. 240 (7441) of 12/26/2022

The Ryazan Regional Duma has not yet appointed its new representative in the Federation Council (SF), although the one-month period established for this by law expired 10 days ago. The speaker of the regional Duma, the first deputy head of the Ryazan “United Russia” Arkady Fomin and two of his fellow party members, who, however, are considered “technical candidates”, claim the post of senator, who was vacated after the resignation of Igor Morozov. According to the political scientist, the deputies are waiting for a “go-ahead from above”, and the lawyer draws attention to the lack of legal mechanisms that would make it possible to force the deputies to delegate their representative to the Federation Council.

The Ryazan Regional Duma lost its representative in the Federation Council on November 16, when the upper house of parliament granted Igor Morozov’s application for early resignation. Mr. Morozov, who first represented the government of the Ryazan region in the Federation Council, and then the Ryazan Regional Duma, resigned, wanting to devote himself entirely to cooperation with Africa (he heads the Coordinating Committee for Economic Cooperation with African Countries – Afrokom).

In accordance with the federal law “On the procedure for forming the Federation Council”, only its deputy can be a representative of the legislative body of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation in the Federation Council, and in the event of early termination of the powers of a senator, a decision to empower a new member of the Federation Council must be made no later than one month from the day resignation of the previous one. The Committee of the Ryazan Regional Duma, according to the regulations, accepted candidates for a vacant position until December 9, a memo was sent to deputies stating that either the speaker or a group of deputies numbering at least one-fifth of the Duma payroll (8 people) can nominate a candidate.

A Kommersant source in the authorities of the Ryazan region previously reported that the main contender for the post of senator from the regional Duma was its speaker, the first deputy secretary of the regional branch of United Russia, Arkady Fomin. Together with him, two of his fellow party members participated in the selection, but Kommersant’s interlocutor called them “technical” candidates. “The issue is dragging on, because instead of nominating their own candidates, everyone is waiting for who the federal center will agree with Ryazan,” the source suggested. In his opinion, the delay may be due to the fact that “there are some restrictions on the main candidate.”

A member of the Communist Party faction in the regional Duma, Viktor Malyugin, in an interview with Kommersant, stated that “the confusion and underground game leads to the fact that there is no representative from the Ryazan region in the Federation Council.” “This is a huge minus,” the communist stressed. Meanwhile, the last scheduled meeting of the Regional Duma took place on December 21, and no other sessions are planned until the end of the year. Consequently, the deputies will most likely elect a new senator next year.

President of the Center for the Development of Regional Policy Ilya Grashchenkov suggests that “some kind of federal bargaining is going on”: “Probably, they are waiting for some kind of go-ahead from above. But because of the special operation, it’s not up to that, so the deadlines were missed.” Oleg Molchanov, a political lawyer, a member of the political technologies committee of the Russian Association for Public Relations, notes that “claims against the representative body (due to violation of the terms of appointment of a senator.— “b”) can only be at the court and then – at the bailiffs. “But the Federal Bailiff Service cannot force someone to nominate a candidate and vote for her,” adds Mr. Molchanov.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time that the Ryazan Regional Duma has been delaying the appointment of its representative to the Federation Council. In 2016, for several months, deputies could not delegate a new senator to replace Nikolai Bulaev, who had switched to work in the Central Election Commission. Then the option of early resignation of the Ryazan governor Oleg Kovalev, who could go to the Federation Council through by-elections to the regional duma, was considered. But Mr. Kovalev eventually left his post only in February 2017, and the Ryazan Regional Duma appointed a new representative to the Federation Council six months later – the ex-Minister of Health of the region Larisa Tyurina became him. After her resignation in October of the same year, Igor Morozov returned to the Federation Council.

Alexander Tikhonov, Yaroslavl