The Popular Front reported on the implementation of two previous presidential messages

On the eve of the announcement of the president’s new message to the Federal Assembly, the Popular Front “For Russia” (PF) reported on the implementation of the previous two. It turned out that the 2023 message has so far been completed by 86%, and the 2021 message only by 61%. The NF explains that last year’s document contained many operational instructions related to responding to urgent challenges, and in 2021 structural fundamental tasks were set. Among the most problematic topics are rising prices and a shortage of drivers for the updated bus fleet. Nevertheless, the head of the executive committee of the NF, Mikhail Kuznetsov, is optimistic: he believes that the president’s messages lay a “value and managerial” foundation for improving the quality of life of citizens and have already changed the lives of many for the better, and the NF will continue to ensure that everything continues this way .

Vladimir Putin himself instructed the Popular Front to monitor the implementation of instructions from presidential addresses. Once a quarter, the NF must make a report on this matter. To date, the NF has prepared 12 reports, and two more are expected by March 1. As the organization told Kommersant, its members conducted 10 monitoring raids and 17 operational surveys, in which more than 200 thousand residents of all 89 regions of Russia took part through the People’s Control platform.

Monitoring raids are carried out with the involvement of experts and activists in the regions. They check whether reports from authorities on the progress of work on the construction of certain facilities, for example, schools and first aid stations, are true. At the same time, the stages and quality of work on specific dates are checked, including with the use of photo and video shooting. “Community activists communicate with people, clarify details, and the collected factual information is checked against documents to verify the timeliness and quality of work,” the NF explains. Sometimes such public control is carried out jointly with representatives of relevant departments and control bodies.

As for the surveys, the target audiences of the messages participate in them: rural educators, teachers and school leaders, parents of schoolchildren and disabled children, low-income citizens, users of State Services, public transport passengers, Russians who have suffered coronavirus, patients of clinics, entrepreneurs, etc. The results of the surveys, in particular, formed the basis for analyzing the effectiveness of the implementation of instructions to create a comprehensive system of measures to support families with children, increasing the amount of payments for caring for a sick child, paying cashback for children’s holidays, and providing some government services 24 hours a day, seven days per week, the provision of medical care in remote areas, the effectiveness of clinical examination and measures to combat diseases, which are the main causes of premature mortality, etc.

According to the NF report, the message of 2021 was fulfilled to a lesser extent than last year’s. Thus, at the moment, 86% of the instructions from the 2023 message have been implemented, another 14% are in development. For 2021, the statistics are worse: 61% completed; 39% are in progress. In this regard, the NF explains that the 2021 message included many structural and fundamental tasks that objectively require a long period of implementation: the construction of 1,300 schools, the development of transport infrastructure, the digitalization of public services and “other important long-term goals.” But in 2023, most of the instructions related to a prompt response to challenges related to sanctions and the conduct of a special military operation: for example, the creation of the Defenders of the Fatherland fund, the implementation of investment projects for the production of priority industrial products, increasing the minimum wage, retraining workers and etc. “Therefore, the implementation of many instructions for 2021 continues now, and the goals set for 2023 have, for the most part, already been promptly achieved,” they say in the NF.

The implemented instructions also include the stability of the budget system, laying the economic and organizational foundations for the technological sovereignty of the Russian Federation, and the modernization of higher education and municipal government. Also in the regions, the fleet of ambulances and school buses was updated. However, as noted by Sergei Kogogin, co-chairman of the NF Central Headquarters, General Director of KamAZ PJSC, this transport cannot always be used due to a shortage of drivers: “The shortage of qualified drivers is noted by all participants in the sphere of public and freight auto and electric transport.”

The NF also points out the delay in the implementation of the order to create a register of alimony debtors. The corresponding bill was prepared back in 2022, but received many negative reviews. Now the document is awaiting adjustments before the second reading in the State Duma.

Problematic issues in NF also include the topic of rising prices. “Examples of a sharp increase in prices and shortages of motor fuel (increase from January to August 2023 for diesel – 3%, for gasoline – 7%), chicken eggs (increase over the year by 61%), chicken meat (increase over the year by 28% ), tomatoes (growth over the year by 51%), pears (growth over the year by 48%), bananas (growth over the year by 47%) and other products showed that measures are not always implemented on time to guarantee price predictability and saturation of the domestic market quality products,” the organization diplomatically notes.

Nevertheless, the head of the NF executive committee, Mikhail Kuznetsov, has an overall optimistic attitude, since the solutions contained in the messages “really change people’s lives for the better.” According to him, this applies to both individual territories (for example, in connection with the construction of the Moscow-Kazan highway) and large groups of people – such as targeted support for veterans of the Northern Military District, payments for families with children, and much more. “Unlike other states, where the addresses of the first person are ritual, often congratulatory and only sometimes political in nature, the messages of the Russian President lay the value and management foundation for systemic changes in the life of every person living in the country. Protecting the interests and improving the quality of life of citizens is their main goal. That is why the Popular Front, as a structure exercising popular control, has been entrusted with monitoring the execution of messages,” the head of the executive committee is sure.

Andrey Vinokurov