The communist was pointed to the bill – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

The commission of the Saratov Regional Duma for monitoring the reliability of the income of deputies revealed violations in the declarations of the leader of the Communist Party faction Alexander Anidalov. The reason for the check was a letter from the prosecutor’s office received by the city council in July, according to which the communist had not indicated two bank accounts in the reports for the previous three years. Mr. Anidalov, who has just been re-elected for a new term, assures that both accounts have long been closed, and the new regional Duma has no right to deprive him of his deputy mandate. The expert believes that the identified violation may have a bad effect on the image of the Communist Party faction.

The meeting of the commission for control over the reliability of information on income, property and liabilities of a property nature was held within the framework of the work of the Saratov Regional Duma of the previous convocation (its new composition, elected September 9–11, meeting for the first time on September 21). According to the head of the commission Alexei Antonov (United Russia), in July the regional Duma received a letter from the regional prosecutor’s office, which states that Alexander Anidalov submitted incomplete information in his declarations for 2019-2021, without indicating two of his bank accounts and one account of his wife . In early August, the commission began an inspection and recently, according to Mr. Antonov, came to the conclusion that violations of anti-corruption laws had taken place. He noted that, according to the certificates received, the existence of two accounts was not confirmed, but one account not indicated in the declaration means that the information provided by the deputy was incomplete.

Alexander Anidalov explained at the meeting that he had not used the bank account in question since 2014. In addition, the account was paid, and according to the rules of the bank, if such an account is not paid within two years, it is automatically closed.

“I insist that I closed this account and its existence is a mistake. The prosecutor’s office did not check and did not interrogate me,” the deputy said. Alexei Antonov, in response, recommended that the communist “carefully monitor anti-corruption legislation” and submit full reports to the regional duma in the future.

The legislation of the Saratov region allows depriving deputies of their powers who have submitted incomplete information about their income. For example, in February mandate lost communist Nikolai Bondarenko: the prosecutor’s office concluded that a popular blogger (Mr. Bondarenko has more than 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube) did not indicate in the declaration the loans of his commercial organization received from his wife, and used his deputy status to receive income from the YouTube channel “Deputy’s Diary”, which is prohibited by regional legislation. In November 2021 for similar reasons was deprived Deputy powers former United Russia Sergei Kurikhin (expelled from the party in December 2020).

Alexander Anidalov told Kommersant that the identified error in the declaration is minor and the deprivation of the mandate will not follow. But even if it was a serious violation, then in order to deprive a deputy of the previous convocation, it is necessary to convene a meeting of the former regional Duma, which is no longer possible, since the first meeting of the new Duma is scheduled for September 21, the communist noted.

“I consulted with lawyers, they told me that the violation does not apply to the new convocation, therefore, in my opinion, it was a “campaign” event to recognize me as violating anti-corruption laws. Now they will be able to call me and Nikolai Bondarenko corrupt officials without fear of lawsuits from our side,” the deputy believes.

In addition, in his opinion, before the opening of a new convocation (Alexander Anidalov was re-elected to the regional duma in a single-mandate district), they decided to show him that any deputy can find violations that could result in the deprivation of a mandate.

Political scientist Alexander Panteleev also believes that the purpose of the “Anidalov case” was “to show the factions of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation so that they would not be carried away by opposition statements in the new convocation.” “In general, in moral terms, this is a rather serious blow for the communists, who now, at every opportunity, will be reminded that it was they who violated anti-corruption laws,” the expert notes.

Sergey Petunin, Saratov