The Ulyanovsk Legislative Assembly has limited access to the archive of its video broadcasts

The legislative assembly of the Ulyanovsk region decided not to save recordings of broadcasts of meetings of parliamentary committees, explaining that this is not provided for by the regulations, and simply “no use”: those who wish can follow them online. It is possible that the recordings of plenary sessions will soon suffer a similar fate. The innovation was criticized not only by social activists and journalists, but also by the deputies themselves. However, the tendency to “close” the legislative process from outside observers is not new: previously broadcasts were limited not only in regional parliaments, but also in the State Duma.

The fact that the Ulyanovsk Legislative Assembly will no longer save recordings of video broadcasts of meetings of its committees became known last Friday. On October 23, this issue was raised at the parliamentary council, but the deputies were unable to come to any conclusion, in fact agreeing with this decision.

There have been no official reports about the innovation. The head of the press service of the legislative assembly, Alla Akimova, confirmed to Kommersant that “this decision has been made”: “The committees’ broadcasts will be in real time and will not be saved.” According to her, there are no violations of the regulations in this case. “We fully respect publicity,” added Ms. Akimova, without specifying who made this decision and why.

“We shouldn’t broadcast committee meetings at all. Nowhere does it say that we are required to keep records. There is no need to keep them,” Elena Ivlieva, head of the legislative assembly staff, told Kommersant. “If journalists are uncomfortable and want to review it in the evening, then we cannot adapt to everyone.” The head of the staff refused to explain who made the decision to delete the recordings, and when asked whether a similar decision would be made regarding the recordings of plenary sessions, she replied: “For now, they will be preserved.”

Chairman of the Legislative Assembly Valery Malyshev (United Russia) also could not explain to Kommersant who made this decision: according to him, he himself read about it on social networks. At the same time, Mr. Malyshev noted that he “does not see any particular need to save recordings of broadcasts.” “What historical value do they represent that we should accumulate archives of these meetings? What do they give, why store unnecessary things? And if someone did not have time to watch the broadcast, then this is the problem of the one who is interested. If you don’t have time, come, ask and look at the protocol,” the speaker said.

Meanwhile, journalists and members of the public have already criticized the innovation, since the recordings allowed them to analyze the decisions of committees and reports of regional ministers, and record statements of deputies and representatives of the executive branch. Eco- and animal rights activist Natalia Lazareva sent an appeal to the prosecutor’s office of the Ulyanovsk region with a request to “oblige the legislative assembly to cancel the decision to remove from the VKontakte network recordings of broadcasts of legislative assembly committees and the legislative assembly itself” as contrary to the principle of openness of representative power.

The parliamentary corps is also in favor of preserving records. For example, deputy chairman of the Legislative Assembly Dmitry Grachev (LDPR) told Kommersant that the recordings allow deputies to analyze the opinions and feedback of the public in the comments. The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction, Vitaly Kuzin, said that he sees in the innovation the “inferiority of openness” of the regional parliament. And even the leader of the United Russia faction, Vladimir Kameko, “does not see the point” in deleting video archives. However, he made a reservation that he was not ready to comment on this decision on its merits, “without knowing who made it and for what reasons.”

This is not the first time access to viewing meetings of representative bodies or their committees has been restricted. Thus, in October 2022, the State Duma, with reference to “legislative issues on SVO”, stopped broadcasting plenary meetings on the Internet. True, in March 2023, after appeals from deputies, the screenings were resumed. In November 2022, online broadcasts were removed from the regulations of the Legislative Assembly of the Vladimir Region. In December 2022, the video broadcast of committee meetings was stopped in the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region: as its speaker Evgeny Lyulin explained in March 2023, there are no plans to resume broadcasts yet, because there may be accusations, “various words and phrases” that the authors later regret . Finally, in September 2023, the Kursk Regional Duma adopted changes to its regulations, allowing meetings to be closed to journalists and limiting Internet broadcasts of committee meetings. After criticism from Governor Roman Starovoit, deputies promised to reverse this decision.

Ulyanovsk political scientist Nikolai Vasin notes that, as surveys show, “the importance of the legislative assembly in the eyes of the population is falling – people have little idea what this body, which is perceived as a structural unit of the regional government, does.” “And in these conditions they (deputies.— “Kommersant”) it is necessary, on the contrary, to cover your activities as much as possible. This is an unwise and short-sighted decision. They are the link between the population and the authorities and therefore are obliged to open their doors as much as possible. And if this continues, then even fewer voters will come to future elections to the Legislative Assembly,” the expert sums up.

Sergey Titov, Ulyanovsk