The Kursk Regional Duma allowed itself to hold closed meetings

The Kursk Regional Duma on Thursday adopted amendments to its regulations allowing meetings to be closed to journalists. In addition, deputies will no longer be able to broadcast the work of committees without permission and actively speak on government watches. The opposition did not agree with the changes, threatening to appeal them in court. In response, the leadership of the Duma reproached them for their desire to promote themselves, which was unacceptable in the conditions of a special military operation.

At today’s meeting, the Kursk Regional Duma adopted changes to its regulations. According to United Russia deputy Vyacheslav Khloponin, who introduced the project, the amendments were developed in order to eliminate controversial and conflicting issues, as well as legal gaps in the organization of the activities of standing committees and the mandate commission of the regional Duma. As the United Russia member emphasized, these changes are similar to the norms in force in the State Duma and most legislative assemblies of other regions.

According to the draft, deputies will be able to hold closed meetings of parliament and committees. Data about their content will not be distributed. The decision to hold closed meetings will be made by a majority vote of the participants.

In addition, chairmen of standing committees at meetings will be able to limit the use of photo, audio and video recording by journalists and deputies.

The changes also affected the government hour, the time of which is limited to 60 minutes. From now on, factions will be able to ask speakers no more than three questions: according to Mr. Khloponin, this will increase the role of the faction and eliminate speeches that are not related to the topic of the event. Finally, the amendments make it possible to deprive a deputy of the right to speak if he violates parliamentary ethics, speaks without permission and uses rude language. Assistants to parliamentarians must now also follow the rules of ethical behavior and not allow statements discrediting the Duma.

Representatives of the opposition unanimously criticized the project. Alexey Bobovnikov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) said that the amendments contradict the federal law on information and information technologies: “The meeting can be closed and access to information limited if any deputy makes such a proposal without explanation, and the rest support it.” His fellow party member Alexander Anpilov proposed postponing the adoption of the document, since not all deputies could familiarize themselves with it in detail: the draft submitted on September 13 was considered by the committee only two days ago, on September 26.

Vladimir Fedorov (LDPR) also supported the communists: “Everything here is officially broadcast everywhere, the governor constantly holds planning meetings and meetings live. And we are going against each other. Over the past 12 years, I remember only one closed meeting where we considered defense and security issues. And then nothing secret was said there, and all the reasonable people understood that it was impossible to film.”

The chairman of the regional Duma, Yuri Amerev (United Russia), sharply responded to the criticism of the opposition, emphasizing that the parliament is interested in publicity, but not in PR campaigns.

“At a time when there is a war in the country, a special military operation is being carried out, when our president is busy with state problems of an international nature, and the governor and residents of the region support the participants in the special military operation, some deputies are concerned that they are not being filmed enough,” the speaker was indignant . He supported the proposed changes, noting that the Duma should show residents high organization of work, and not “permissiveness, laxity and anarchy.” As a result, the amendments were adopted by a confident majority: 27 votes in favor, 5 against and one abstention. The Communist Party faction has already stated that it is ready to appeal this decision in court.

Political scientist Vladimir Slatinov believes that the amendments to the regulations are aimed at minimizing uncoordinated activity in representative bodies. “For the first time, regulatory changes in the regional parliament were adopted in the Lipetsk region, in which the Communist Party of the Russian Federation consistently and harshly opposes the regional authorities on the platform of the regional council,” the expert recalls. “There is no such confrontation in the Kursk region. It seems that the leadership of the local Duma is building its own vertical, which, however, fits into the federal trend.”

Sergey Tolmachev, Voronezh