The choice of senators was postponed until the elections – Newspaper Kommersant No. 233 (7434) of 12/15/2022

The appointment of senators from the new subjects of the Russian Federation is being delayed. According to Kommersant’s sources in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), neither the acting head Denis Pushilin nor the People’s Council (Parliament) plan to delegate their representatives to the upper house at least until the adoption of a new republican constitution, and at the most before the elections, which should pass in September 2023 (now the region is under martial law, under which elections are not held). In the parliament of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), they are ready to decide on the senator faster, but traditionally they are waiting for colleagues from the neighboring republic.

As a source in the leadership of the DPR told Kommersant, the positions of senators from the executive and legislative branches of the republic will probably remain vacant until September 2023, when the elections of the head and the People’s Council of the DPR are to be held. According to him, this is due to “procedural issues.” Other subjects that became part of the Russian Federation on September 30 can do the same, the interlocutor of Kommersant added.

A source in the DPR parliament confirmed to Kommersant that the deputies do not yet plan to initiate the procedure for appointing a senator and “there have been no consultations on this matter.” According to him, the People’s Council will not return to this issue until the adoption of a new constitution: “Now this is paramount.”

Recall that together with the DPR, three more subjects joined the Russian Federation – the LPR, the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. Andrey Klishas, ​​chairman of the Federation Council (SF) committee on constitutional legislation, explained that the republics can immediately appoint two senators each, since they have active legislative bodies. The regions joined Russia without them, so only the “gubernatorial quota” can be filled there before the elections. There are no legal obstacles to the appointment of senators, Mr. Klishas emphasized.

According to the law “On the procedure for the formation of the Federation Council”, the regional parliament must delegate one of its members to the upper house. Now the list of Donetsk deputies is 100 people, but they do not represent parties, but socio-political movements – the “Donetsk Republic” and “Free Donbass”. The council is headed by the former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (2012-2014) from the Ukrainian Communist Party Volodymyr Bidyovka. He replaced Denis Pushilin in this post, who was elected head of the DPR in 2018, and on October 4, 2022, was appointed by Vladimir Putin to the post of acting head of the DPR.

Mr. Pushilin’s circle of potential senators is somewhat wider. Prior to the elections, during which he must name three candidates and approve one of them after the election, the head of the republic has the right to delegate to the Federation Council not only a deputy of the People’s Council, but also any serviceman from among the highest officers or federal civil servant in a class rank corresponding to the military the rank of general of the army, admiral of the fleet, colonel general or admiral.

On October 7, Denis Pushilin told TASS that “consultations are already underway” on candidates for the post of senator, but their names will be known “a little later”: “This is not a one-day process.” Since then, there has been no information about this. It was not possible to get a comment from the press service of the head of the DPR “Kommersant”.

It should be noted that Crimea, after joining in 2014, decided on the members of the Federation Council much faster: on March 26, eight days after the signing of the agreement on the adoption of a new subject, the State Council of the Republic appointed Sergei Tsekov as a representative of the region according to the “legislative quota”, and Olga Kovitidi (April 15, her powers were confirmed by the Acting Head of the Crimea Sergey Aksyonov). But in Sevastopol, both senators were delegated to the Federation Council only in October – after the elections to the legislative assembly and the indirect elections of the governor. At the same time, both subjects coped with the adoption of the main law much faster than the DNR and LNR – the constitution of Crimea and the charter of Sevastopol were adopted on April 11 (24 days later).

Vladimir Bidyovka told Kommersant that work on the constitution is at its final stage: the document is ready “by 80%” and can be adopted before the end of the year. “But we do not set deadlines, because we focus on quality. For us, this is quite new. Yes, we adopted the constitution of the DPR (in 2014.— “b”), but now it must comply with federal law,” the speaker explained.

Denis Miroshnichenko, chairman of the People’s Council of the LPR, told Kommersant that the Luhansk parliament is ready to fill its “quota” faster – there have already been consultations on this matter and there is a candidate (the council consists of 50 deputies representing the Peace of Lugansk region and the Lugansk Economic Union “). “But it seems to me that it is right and correct that we do this together with Donetsk: we announced the referendums together, either in 2014 or 22. They just have now (operational.— “b”) the situation is getting a little more complicated, and therefore the appointment is being delayed a little,” Miroshnichenko noted. At the same time, the draft constitution of the LPR has already been developed and is on “interdepartmental coordination,” he added: “I think we will definitely adopt it by the end of the year.”

Elena Kuzmina, adviser to the acting head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, refused to answer Kommersant’s question about the timing of the appointment of a senator according to the “governor’s quota”. Kommersant did not promptly manage to get comments from the administrations of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

We add that the Federation Council itself sees no reason for haste. “This is the competence of the subjects, it is not limited in terms of time,” Vyacheslav Timchenko, chairman of the regulatory committee of the Federation Council, told Kommersant. “When they are ready to carry out organizational procedures, then they themselves will make a decision. We can’t point from above.”

According to a Kommersant source close to the presidential administration (AP), senators from the new regions will indeed be approved after the elections. This version is also confirmed by an interlocutor in the Kremlin’s internal political bloc: “They will have senators when there are governors and parliaments elected according to Russian laws.” Another well-informed Kommersant source close to the Presidential Administration explains the difficulties with the selection of candidates as follows: on the one hand, local personnel are needed, on the other hand, they must be professional enough and understandable for the federal center, and there are not many of them.

Andrey Ash, Andrey Vinokurov