The White House began the active phase of preparing the Prime Minister’s report to the State Duma

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, on the eve of the report in the State Duma, begins meetings with representatives of factions. Representatives of the United Russia and LDPR factions will be the first to arrive at the White House on March 13, according to the government press service. United Russia declined to comment. At a meeting with Mishustin, the Liberal Democratic Party traditionally raises issues that concern people, says deputy head of the faction Yaroslav Nilov: measures of social support for certain categories of citizens – pensioners, large families, participants in a special operation and mobilized families, the state of the labor market, etc. Nilov himself wants to raise questions , “which confirm the perniciousness” of the public procurement law.

Then representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Just Russia will come to Mishustin in turn (March 15), then – New People (March 16), a source close to the presidential administration told Vedomosti and confirmed the interlocutor in the State Duma. Not the entire faction travels to such meetings in the White House, one of the State Duma deputies will clarify. As a rule, its leadership or those who actively participate in the Prime Minister’s report to the State Duma (for example, ask questions) are sent there.

In addition, according to three Vedomosti interlocutors close to the presidential administration, before the report on Okhotny Ryad, the head of government will also talk to political experts.

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on his Telegram channel that the final date for the government’s report will be set this week, while the report is scheduled for March 22 or 23 (Vedomosti previously wrote that the report could be due on the 21st).

According to Oleg Morozov, chairman of the State Duma Control Committee, the council of the lower house of parliament decided that each of the five factions would send 20 questions to the prime minister. For example, the Communist Party faction prepared 45 questions, but together with the committee 20 of them were selected, and the rest will be sent to the government, which will answer these questions in writing. Morozov recalled that last year the State Duma sent 373 questions to the Cabinet of Ministers, then most of the questions related to the work of individual ministries and “did not correspond to the government’s annual report.” The list of questions will be approved and sent to the White House on March 13 by the Council of the State Duma.

Mishustin became prime minister in 2020, and in July of that year, he actually reported to the government of his predecessor, Dmitry Medvedev, and presented work plans. In May 2021 and April 2022, the reports took place under extraordinary conditions – the coronavirus and the start of a military special operation. In addition, this is the penultimate report of the Cabinet of Ministers in its current composition. Following the presidential elections in March 2024 and the presidential inauguration in May, a new government will be appointed.

The activities of the Mishustin government in 2022 can be considered quite effective, and in this sense, the Prime Minister’s report should have a positive impact on his image, said Dmitry Orlov, Director General of the Agency for Political and Economic Communications. “Indirect evidence of the overall effectiveness is a relatively shallow drop in GDP against the backdrop of sanctions pressure and a special operation, noted by the president. Mishustin’s report will most likely focus on adequate regulation of agriculture, a good pace of construction, a policy in the field of technological sovereignty, and the redirection of resource flows to the east, ”says Orlov. The government continues to act in special circumstances, the expert notes, so one can hardly expect harsh questions from the opposition parties: “Criticism will be restrained – in the logic of a conditional inter-party consensus in the context of a special operation.”