The number of appeals to the State Duma in 2023 began to decline

The number of citizens’ appeals to the State Duma decreased over the first three months of 2023 compared to the last quarter of 2022 by 63%. This is stated in the report, which was prepared by the profile department of the lower house of parliament (Vedomosti got acquainted with the document).

In total, the State Duma received 68,955 appeals in January-March. Of these, 48,848 (71%) were “ordinary” deputies, 6,635 (10%) were chairmen of the State Duma, 5,134 (7.5%) were in committees and commissions, 4,900 (7%) were in fractions, and 2,161 were in the apparatus ( 3%), vice-speakers – 1050 (1.5%). In the last quarter of 2022, the State Duma received 185,466 appeals, which is 223% more than in the previous period. Then more than half of the appeals concerned the bill on a unified system for storing biometric data.

The Office calculated which thematic blocks received appeals in 2023. For example, 23,611 appeals were received in the State, Society, Politics block, with 5,156 complaints against the Ministry of Education. Another 1,252 appeals are responses to amendments to the Housing Code regarding the placement, operation and dismantling of communication networks in apartment buildings.

There were 20,033 appeals in the “Defense, Security, Legality” block, of which 5,736 were about bills on the introduction of a digital ruble. Another 5157 appeals were with requests to pass bills on exemption from mobilization, the report says. In addition, 2423 appeals were related to the special operation, for example, with a request to assist in the search for the missing, to be included in the lists for the exchange of prisoners, to solve problems with payments, etc.

Last year there were many appeals in connection with the mobilization, says the head of the defense committee Andrey Kartapolov: “We have established work on appeals related to missing persons, prisoners of war. And we respond to them as quickly as possible. At the same time, according to him, there is an “organized group of comrades” who write appeals, for example, about the need for changes related to exemption from mobilization: “Let them write.”

There were 12,715 appeals in the Social Sphere block. In the “Economics” block – 9310 appeals, of which 935 – with a request to adopt a law establishing a ban on catching marine mammals for cultural and educational purposes. Another 542 submissions were about the responsible treatment of animals. There were 3,286 appeals in the housing and communal services block, most of them with complaints about the work of management companies.

Most of the appeals were received by deputies from United Russia (32,178), then the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (7062), Just Russia (4615), LDPR (2704), New People (2021). Of the deputies, they most often wrote to the speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin (8782), on information policy Alexander Khinshtein (698), on defense Kartapolov (587), on family issues Nina Ostanina (519), as well as the first deputy head of the committee on ecology Vladimir Burmatov (909), Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy Mikhail Delyagin (554) and faction leaders – Sergei Mironov (626), Gennady Zyuganov (565), and Vladimir Vasiliev (487).

The list also included one ordinary deputy – Anzhelika Glazkova. The head of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, was not among those to whom citizens actively turn. Volodin, Burmatov, Khinshtein, Kartapolov and Vasilyev are deputies from United Russia, Glazkov, Zyuganov and Ostanin are from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Mironov and Delyagin are from A Just Russia. In general, the number of appeals to deputies in the first quarter decreased by 69% compared to the previous one.

“Some appeals are fanning out to all committees, such as initiatives to introduce a digital ruble or amendments to the law on education,” said Yaroslav Nilov (LDPR), head of the labor committee. “I [в комитете] banned the use of phrases like “we are not authorized”, “go to court” – they still expect us to help, not a veiled refusal,” he says.

Resonant bills in 9 cases out of 10 provoke the organization of campaigns for the mass mailing of letters and affect the overall statistics on work with appeals, says Pavel Sklyanchuk, a member of the political technologies committee of the RASO: “To the topic of mobilization [в данном случае] can attribute appeals from ultra-patriots who want to spur political parties to take tougher action.”

Citizens often write to the State Duma because of inflated expectations: for example, to review a court decision, confusing the functionality of State Duma deputies with the powers of other authorities, the expert adds. Although the work of deputies without feedback would be inferior.