The government did not support the bills of ex-candidates for mayor of Moscow

At its meeting on Monday, the Government Commission on Legislative Activities gave negative opinions on the next batch of parliamentary initiatives. Among them are several bills by former candidates for mayor of Moscow, vice-speakers of the State Duma Vladislav Davankov (“New People”) and Boris Chernyshov (LDPR), dating back to the period of the capital’s election campaign. The expert believes that the election initiatives were doomed to be rejected, but their goal was not legislative changes, but to increase party ratings through citations in the media.

Vladislav Davankov, in one of his initiatives, proposed establishing a 50% discount on transport tax for those motorists who have not been held accountable for violating traffic rules during the year. The government in its response recalls that compliance with laws is a constitutional duty of Russian citizens and it is unlawful to encourage its compliance with benefits.

In another of his bills, Mr. Davankov proposed introducing administrative liability for increased noise from motorcycles and cars. Responsibility for such violations has already been provided for, and the adoption of the document will lead to competition between administrative and legal norms, the government believes.

Another initiative of Vladislav Davankov involved introducing amendments to the Criminal Code, according to which the age of the victim over 60 years would become an aggravating circumstance for his offender. The Cabinet of Ministers noted that a similar rule is already in effect: responsibility for a crime is aggravated if it is committed “in relation to a defenseless or helpless person or a person dependent on the perpetrator.” In general, the age of the victim “will not always be recognized by the perpetrator,” the Cabinet adds.

In addition, Vladislav Davankov proposed limiting the statute of limitations for bringing administrative liability for posts published on the Internet to a period of 60 to 90 days from the date of their publication. The Government points to case law which classifies such offenses as continuing. “This approach (proposed by the deputy.— “Kommersant”) will critically limit the possibility of bringing persons who have committed relevant offenses to administrative responsibility and will have a negative impact on the preventive function of legislation on administrative offenses,” the government’s review says.

Finally, Vladislav Davankov, together with the leader of the “New People” faction, Alexei Nechaev, and his deputy, Alexander Demin, also proposed invalidating a number of articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO), which provide for liability for entrepreneurs. According to the Cabinet of Ministers, “when developing the bill, it was not taken into account that in 2022, comprehensive changes were made to the Code of Administrative Offenses, providing for a reduction in the administrative burden on business entities.”

The initiative of Boris Chernyshov, which was considered by a government commission on Monday, implies preserving the right to receive child benefits for parents whose children are refused admission to kindergarten, and therefore they cannot work full time. The government in its response points out that the law guarantees universal and free preschool education, and the problem of lack of places in kindergartens is resolved, including within the framework of the implementation of the federal project “Promotion of Employment” of the national project “Demography”. In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers indicates that the bill does not indicate the sources of funds for its implementation.

“The election initiatives were doomed to rejection,” notes Pavel Sklyanchuk, a member of the RASO committee on political technologies. “More than five of them no longer passed the stage of distribution to Duma committees due to regulatory violations or lack of budget sources and were returned to the authors – ex-candidates for mayor of Moscow Boris Chernyshov and Vladislav Davankov. The rest will most likely not be supported by the government. There is no flow of quantity into quality in the legislative process. Even the projects of regional legislative assemblies have recently been supported by the government commission more often than proposals of opposition factions. However, the latter’s tactical goal is not to achieve legislative changes, but to increase party ratings through citations in the media. Strategically, the winner will ultimately be United Russia, which has instructed its deputies to coordinate their initiatives with the relevant ministries before submitting them to the Duma. Therefore, based on the results of legislative activities, she will present a “bill on the scoreboard” that is favorable to her.”

Let us note that in total, ex-candidates for mayor of Moscow – current State Duma deputies – introduced 37 bills: 15 – Vladislav Davankov, 14 – Boris Chernyshov, 8 – deputy of the “A Just Russia – For Truth” faction Dmitry Gusev. None of them have yet been considered in the first reading.

Ksenia Veretennikova