State services of the people – Newspaper Kommersant No. 63 (7508) of 04/12/2023

During the consideration by the Duma of the draft law on electronic subpoenas and the register of those liable for military service on Tuesday, the communists announced violations of the regulations. They complained that the amendments appeared in the Duma database too late and they did not have time to study them in detail. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation believes that this style of decision-making demonstrates disrespect for the deputies. United Russia Dmitry Vyatkin and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin responded to this protest attempt: one said that the communists themselves were violating the rules, and the second hinted to their parliamentary colleagues that they were simply trying to sabotage the decision. As a result, the bills were supported by 394 deputies, with one abstention.

A bill on new rules for notifying conscripts about conscription was submitted to the State Duma back in 2018. In the second reading, it was adopted on February 22, 2022, two days before the start of the special military operation in Ukraine. For a year the document went to the third reading, and last week, at the request of the Duma Defense Committee, it was returned to the second. The head of the committee, Andrey Kartapolov (United Russia), assured the deputies that it was necessary to make a purely technical amendment – to change the date of entry into force, which was originally indicated as April 1, 2022. However, already on Monday, Mr. Kartapolov told reporters about new amendments and plans of the Duma to adopt the document at the next meeting in the second and third readings.

The head of the State Duma Committee on Family Affairs, Nina Ostanina (KPRF), said in her Telegram channelthat during the discussion of the agenda of the meeting (it is held behind closed doors), she, her faction colleague Alexei Kurinny and non-factional deputy Oksana Dmitrieva proposed to remove the bill from consideration, since the deputies did not have time to familiarize themselves with the amendments. “At the beginning of the meeting, the bill was not posted in the SOZD system, the deputies did not have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with its text. According to the rules of the State Duma, the committee is obliged to post the text three days before the discussion. Answer of the chairman of the committee (on defense.— “b”) short: “In 10 minutes we will post. The law is extremely relevant.”

Andrey Kartapolov, speaking with a report, admitted that the bill has “not a very simple fate.” He noted that “the experience of carrying out mobilization activities last year revealed serious problems in the field of military registration.”

The problems, according to the head of the defense committee, are caused by the lack of databases with information about the citizen, his family composition, health status, availability of armor, deferrals, place of residence, etc. “The key task in this regard is to create a modern information base for military registration based on successful practices of digitalization of public services,” Mr. Kartapolov emphasized. But he noted that there are other tasks that the authors of the amendments are also trying to solve. The first is “minimization of personal communication between citizens and military commissariats.” And the second is “ensuring justice and equality of citizens”. “Agree that those who conscientiously fulfill their constitutional duty and those who evade military service should not be on an equal footing. Those who evade should be held accountable for this,” the parliamentarian urged. He said that the amendments, which complicate the life of the deviators, were introduced by the deputies of all five factions of the Duma. In addition to Mr. Kartapolov himself, Andrey Lugovoy (LDPR), Viktor Sobolev (KPRF), Dmitry Gusev (A Just Russia – For Truth) and Roza Chemeris (New People) put their signatures under them.

No one tried to argue with the essence of the amendments. However, the Communists still once again raised the topic of violating the regulations.

“In the first reading, we considered amendments to one law – “On military duty and military service”. In the second reading, we amended seven more laws. From the point of view of our regulations, this is a change in concept, this is obvious. By doing this, you are doubting, probably, an important bill on the fight against deviationists, ”said Nikolai Kolomeytsev, first deputy head of the Communist Party faction. 58 pages of the main text of the bill and 80 pages of amendments were entered into the Duma database at 13:29, which did not give the deputies a chance to familiarize themselves with them in detail before discussion, the communist said. “What chance did we have to study these amendments when they were made at such a time? – Supported his faction colleague Artem Prokofiev. – Why adopt the bill under the cloak of secrecy and very quickly? What is it about him that such secrecy is needed?”

Dmitry Vyatkin, the first deputy head of the United Russia faction, responded by accusing the communists of trying to violate the rules themselves, because “now you need to put to a separate vote those amendments that are in doubt, and speeches should be made after the vote in the third reading.”

Then Aleksey Kurinny (KPRF) suggested putting all 24 amendments to a separate vote. “You have to ask yourself why you were elected as a deputy – to sabotage decisions?” – supported the counterattack on the Communist Party, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

As a result, Mr. Kurinny submitted only four amendments to a separate vote, all of them were adopted.

But the communists continued to insist on their own. Nina Ostanina expressed the opinion that such a rapid introduction of amendments in the absence of the opportunity to get acquainted with them is a “disrespectful attitude towards the deputies”, who, after the adoption of the bill, are responsible and accountable for it to the voters, regardless of whether they voted for this document or not. Andrei Lugovoi accused the media of linking the adoption of the amendments with the possibility of declaring a general mobilization. “The restrictions that we are introducing are obvious, and there is no need to arrange a Sabbath. 18-20 years has come – step by step to serve in the army! demanded Mr. Lugovoi.

The bill was adopted in the second and third readings. 394 deputies voted for it, one abstained.

Ksenia Veretennikova