The Council is authorized to declare

The leaders of the factions of the State Duma agreed on Monday to hold an extraordinary meeting of the council of the lower house of parliament on August 25. According to the leader of the party “Fair Russia – For the Truth” Sergei Mironov, the council will prepare a “tough” statement in connection with the situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and send it to international parliamentary organizations and the UN. The document is being prepared by the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, as head of the Duma Committee on International Affairs.

The Council of the Duma will meet on August 25 for an extraordinary meeting to discuss the situation around the Zaporozhye NPP, the Duma press office on the results of the August 22 meeting of the speaker of the chamber Vyacheslav Volodin with the leaders of the factions. It discussed the proposal of the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov on the need to hold a meeting of the council in connection with the shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which is under the control of Russian troops, “putting the world on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe.”

“It was decided that we will prepare a statement by the Council of the Duma, and on Thursday, August 25, the leaders of the faction together with the chairman will meet again in the morning, approximately at 15 o’clock we will convene the council of the Duma, at which our tough statement will be adopted, which we address to First of all, the United Nations and all international parliamentary organizations,” Sergei Mironov said immediately after the meeting. “An attempt to purposefully shoot, including at radioactive waste storage facilities, is a real crime against humanity,” he added.

The format of this “statement” has not yet been determined. The document is being prepared by the head of the committee on international affairs, LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky, Kommersant was told in the Duma. Earlier, he said that the deputies “should clearly define their position and, possibly, appeal to international institutions and parliaments of the countries of the world regarding the safety of nuclear facilities on the territory of Ukraine and the inadmissibility of “nuclear terrorism” by the Kyiv junta.”

Kommersant’s interlocutors in the Duma could not recall other examples of “council statements”: usually the general position of the lower house is expressed through appeals or statements by the State Duma adopted at a plenary session in the form of a resolution (for example, it was in this format that an appeal to the president was approved on February 15 on the need to recognize the independence of the DNR and LNR).

But now the deputies have an official vacation (it will last until August 28), and to hold a meeting of the council, it is enough to gather in the Duma, in addition to the speaker and faction leaders, vice speakers and heads of committees. There are no plans to hold a plenary session in this regard.

Toward evening, the press service of the State Duma reported that Vyacheslav Volodin signed an order to hold an extraordinary meeting of the council of the chamber on August 25 at 15:00. With a report on the main issue, in addition to Gennady Zyuganov and Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the Duma Committee on Energy Pavel Zavalny (United Russia) and the head of the Committee on CIS Affairs Leonid Kalashnikov (KPRF) will make a report.

In addition, the Council will send to the mailing list the bills submitted to the Duma in July-August, after the end of the spring session. According to a Kommersant source in the Duma, there are currently 37 such documents on the council’s agenda. Also, as Kommersant’s interlocutor confirmed, a decision will be made to extend the deadline for collecting amendments to the second reading of the resonant bill of United Russia deputy Artem Kiryanov on creating a single operator in the digital advertising market in Russia.

The Duma press service also reported that at the meeting of faction leaders “the tragic death (journalists and daughters of political scientist Alexander Dugin.— “b”) Daria Dugina. According to Kommersant’s interlocutor, the participants in the meeting were “outraged by the meanness of those who committed this terrorist attack.”

According to the regulations of the Duma, its council is engaged in preliminary preparation and consideration of issues related to the activities of the chamber, so any statements by the council are not final, but will announce their subsequent submission to the State Duma, political scientist Pavel Sklyanchuk notes.

“That is, we are dealing with a form of parliamentary political planning associated with an active international agenda and resonant topics,” the expert adds.

After the end of the vacation, the deputies are scheduled to work in the regions, and the first plenary meeting of the autumn session of the State Duma is scheduled for September 12.

Afanasy Sborov