The word came to the point – Newspaper Kommersant No. 199 (7400) of 10/26/2022

The Council of the State Duma on Tuesday approved instructions to the committees for the implementation of initiatives, which the leaders of the factions had earlier made at one of the plenary sessions. Among them, in particular, is the development of proposals for the same payments to participants in the special operation in Ukraine and the “write-off” of loans from them. The expert considers the new format of work with the speeches of deputies a demonstration of the “attentive attitude” of the Duma leadership to the initiatives of all factions.

At a meeting of the council of the chamber on October 25, the deputies recalled the political statements that the leaders of the factions made on September 28 – at the first plenary meeting after the referendums on the accession of new regions to Russia. Then, we recall, the speaker of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, instructed the relevant committees to analyze the proposals of the party members. The control committee reported on the work done at the council, which singled out specific quotations from the speeches of the faction leaders and painted instructions for them to the Duma committees (Kommersant has the document).

Thus, in connection with the words of the leader of the United Russia faction Vladimir Vasilyev about the inadmissibility of “corruption in matters of conscription”, the defense and security committees were instructed to “strengthen parliamentary control over the activities of the relevant state bodies in the framework of the application of anti-corruption legislation.” And in the development of his own proposal that only people who have served in the army and have a military specialty come to the civil service, the committee on legislation was instructed to “work out the issue of additional requirements for persons applying for state and municipal positions.”

The Budget Committee will have to consider the proposals of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the New People (NL) factions on amendments to the draft budget: in particular, the leader of the NL, Alexei Nechaev, said that due to the deficit budget, it is necessary to abandon some infrastructure projects and revise spending on national projects.

The leader of A Just Russia – For the Truth, Sergei Mironov, offered to write off all loans from the participants in the special operation. The Financial Market Committee will have to work out the issue of such benefits. In addition, he proposed to introduce amendments providing for the same payments for participants in the special operation, so that it does not turn out that one, as in Moscow, is paid 50 thousand rubles each. per month, others – one-time 100 thousand, and to someone and 300 thousand rubles: this issue will be dealt with by the committees on defense, labor and budget.

When considering bills, the relevant committees were also instructed to “take into account the peculiarities of the socio-economic development of new regions” – this is a reaction to the words of the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Leonid Slutsky about the need to “forcefully resolve” the issues of restoring destroyed infrastructure.

As the first deputy head of the control committee, Mikhail Romanov (ER), explained to Kommersant, this is a new format of work for the Duma, although even at the beginning of the convocation, the speaker instructed the new control committee to monitor the speeches of the faction leaders and respond to their proposals. But earlier these were point issues that were resolved in a working order, the deputy notes. According to him, there were no objections to the discussion of this list of instructions at the council meeting. Its members agreed with the committee’s proposals and instructed the factions and committees to develop appropriate amendments to the laws, Mr. Romanov said, specifying that the deadline for fulfilling the instructions is the end of the autumn session.

Previously, the practice of transferring the statements of deputies to documents was used only within the framework of government hours – for resolutions based on their results, and protocol instructions were given to committees at a plenary meeting, and were not formalized by a decision of the council, notes political scientist Pavel Sklyanchuk. He believes that the new format is an attempt by the leadership of the Duma to orient the factions to their own responsibility for decision-making, as well as a demonstration of “attentive attitude” to the proposals of all factions. Although the effectiveness of such work may be in question, the expert admits.

Maria Makutina