The State Duma created a group for the preservation of traditional values

In Okhotny Ryad, an inter-factional working group was created for the “legislative implementation” of state policy in the field of preserving and strengthening traditional Russian spiritual values. On January 18, the Council of the State Duma considered this issue, represented by its head of the commission on regulations, Viktor Pinsky. The group was created on the initiative of the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, the former Commissioner for Children’s Rights Anna Kuznetsova (United Russia), says Vedomosti’s interlocutor in the State Duma. She will lead the group.

Vedomosti’s interlocutor in the State Duma says that while the provision on the working group has not been approved, it will be corrected. An interlocutor in the council of the lower board of parliament said that State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin proposed making Kuznetsova’s deputies in this group representatives from different factions, this would need to be recorded on paper.

Now the group has 22 deputies from five Duma factions, half of which are representatives of United Russia. Among those who will think about how to implement the state policy in the field of preserving and strengthening traditional Russian spiritual values ​​at the legislative level are Tatyana Butskaya, Alexander Sholokhov (both United Russia members), Nikolai Burlyaev, Elena Drapeko, Dmitry Gusev (all members of the Fair Russia”), Nina Ostanina (KPRF), Boris Chernyshov (LDPR), Dmitry Pevtsov (“New People”) and others.

The current version of the draft regulation on the group states that the group will conduct an expert assessment of bills submitted to the State Duma, in terms of their compliance with the presidential decree on traditional values ​​(signed in November 2022), analyze problems and risks in this area, and law enforcement practice to develop proposals. Group meetings will be held at least once every three months.

The regulation on the group will be finalized and again submitted to the council, says a source in the State Duma.

First of all, the group will be engaged in the analysis of law enforcement practice, including its compliance with the decree, Chernyshov said: “There will be an analysis of the bills that come to the State Duma, as well as those legal documents that have already been adopted.” According to him, the meetings of the group will be open, they will invite representatives of the executive authorities, public figures. It is possible that subgroups will be organized that will deal with the topics of culture, education, child protection, he adds.

On Tuesday, the first organizational meeting of the group took place, whose task is to ensure that the goals of the presidential decree begin to be implemented in new laws and in the actions of the authorities, Gusev told Vedomosti. “The main problem is that the population in Russia is decreasing every year. We are dying out. Measures in connection with maternity capital are good, but insufficient – they were aimed at ensuring that women give birth, and now the task is to give birth a lot. To restore the population, each family should have four children,” the MP believes.

At the same time, he adds that women should simultaneously make a career: “Here is the example of Anna Karenina – by the age of 30 she had a schoolboy son. But she ended badly. And if she had the opportunity to build a career, like modern women, then the story would have ended differently.

Before, the deputies had already worked on issues of morality. The Interfactional Group for the Protection of Christian Values ​​acted in the V, VI and VII convocations. In the last convocation, it was headed by the communist Sergei Gavrilov, at that time the chairman of the committee for the development of civil society. Back in February 2022, Vice Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy said that the council of the State Duma of the 7th convocation decided to create an inter-factional working group to protect Christian values. He noted that the group was created “with the blessing” of Patriarch Kirill.

The interlocutor in the State Duma explains that these are different groups. “The group for the protection of Christian values ​​includes 67 deputies from all factions. These deputies were the locomotive of the inter-factional decisions of the last session – the ban on LGBT propaganda and surrogacy for foreigners, the protection of the Russian language, etc. The new group will monitor the implementation of the presidential decree on traditional values,” he explains.

After the amendments to the Constitution in 2020, a norm appeared there, according to which Russia should ensure the implementation of a unified socially oriented state policy in the field of culture, science, education, healthcare, social security, ecology, support, strengthening and protection of the family, preservation of traditional family values.

And on November 9, 2022, the president signed a decree approving the foundations of the state policy for the preservation and strengthening of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values ​​(“life, dignity, human rights and freedoms, patriotism, citizenship, service to the Fatherland and responsibility for its fate, high moral ideals, strong family, creative work, the priority of the spiritual over the material”, etc.).

The decree contains a reference to the National Security Strategy, in which “the situation in Russia and in the world is assessed as requiring urgent measures to protect traditional values.” “The ideological and psychological impact on citizens leads to the planting of a system of ideas and values ​​that is alien to the Russian people and destructive to Russian society, including the cultivation of selfishness, permissiveness, immorality, and the rejection of the ideals of patriotism,” the decree says. The main tools for implementing the state policy for the preservation of traditional values ​​are the development by the authorities of action plans for the implementation of the presidential decree, the involvement of civil society institutions in their implementation and control over their implementation.

The topic of protecting traditional values ​​is one of the priorities in the president’s policy, says Konstantin Kostin, head of the Civil Society Development Fund: “Therefore, the group will have a lot of work related to both legislative support for the implementation of the decree and monitoring law enforcement practice. It is important that representatives of the executive branch be invited to the meetings of the group.”