The working group worked with the problems – Newspaper Kommersant No. 24 (7469) dated 02/09/2023

In the Kursk region on Wednesday, an off-site meeting of the working group on the special military operation (SVO) was held under the leadership of the First Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Andrey Turchak. According to the senator, in a month and a half, parliamentarians, social activists and military correspondents included in the group received over 22,000 appeals from SVO members and their families, on the basis of which a “heat map” of problems was compiled. In the near future, it will fall on the president’s desk along with the first report of the working group. In particular, the document plans to raise the issues of digitalization of military records, comprehensive rehabilitation of military personnel, reduction of the terms for recognizing fighters as missing and accrual of military pensions.

On February 8, the field meeting began in conditions close to combat: together with the Governor of the Kursk Region Roman Starovoit, Andriy Turchak and members of the working group examined one of the platoon strongholds equipped on the border with Ukraine, and also visited the training center of the Kursk territorial garrison, where the combat training mobilized citizens and contractors. “We talked to the soldiers. Everyone is happy, everyone is provided. No problem. With payments – too, ”wrote Mr. Turchak in his telegram channel.

Recall, President Vladimir Putin formed a working group on the mobilization and support of NWO members on December 20. It included members of both chambers of the federal parliament, representatives of veterans and public organizations, journalists and military correspondents, as well as the author of the Rybar military telegram channel, Mikhail Zvinchuk. “This group is a feedback tool for the president from the front line,” Andrei Turchak explained at the time. However, already after the first meeting of the new structure on December 28, the senator noted that “the created group is not a book of complaints”, but “a platform for developing systemic decisions, including legislative ones.” At the beginning of 2023, its members visited the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, Kherson, Bryansk, Rostov and Samara regions, Khakassia and Tuva.

At an off-site meeting on February 8, Andrei Turchak said that in a month and a half the group had processed more than 22,000 requests.

“All received signals are verified, analyzed and entered into a heat map. Together with the first report, we will present it to the president next week,” the senator promised.

According to Mr. Turchak, on many issues, “which were on the agenda one or two months ago, the degree of tension has decreased.” In particular, we are talking about the incorrect calculation of payments, the mobilization of fathers with many children and some other sensitive topics.

“One of the main problems that our monitoring fixes is the military registration of citizens. During partial mobilization, due to outdated approaches to storing information, people with serious illnesses were erroneously called up, with delays provided for by law,” the senator continued. “Today, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Digital Development are engaged in the digitalization of military enlistment offices. All of them are already connected to the Internet. Documents are being digitized.

In the report, which will be presented to Vladimir Putin, it is planned to raise the issue of creating centers for the comprehensive rehabilitation of NWO participants: these structures, according to Andrey Turchak, should appear in all regions. They will be called “ZOV” (these three Latin letters are used as tactical insignia of the Russian troops) and work on the principle of “one stop shop”, said Anna Kuznetsova, deputy head of the working group, State Duma Vice Speaker. A comprehensive rehabilitation program should also include legal support, Ms. Kuznetsova added: “Sometimes information about rights is already enough, but sometimes you need to stand up for rights.”

Also, in all regions of the Russian Federation, a minimum set of measures should be in place to support family members of NWO participants, Andrey Turchak added. “This will eliminate the problem of their unevenness and will allow people to keep benefits when moving from one subject to another,” the senator explained. Other initiatives include reducing the time for recognizing servicemen as missing to three months, and recognizing the missing as dead – up to six months, updating the list of military specialties, returning benefits for free travel of servicemen and their families to the place of service and providing them with food, and also the definition of the period of service for granting leave to the participants of the SVO.

Finally, the working group prepared a draft law on the maintenance of pensions for mobilized military pensioners, since, under the current law, their payment for the period of service is suspended.

State Duma deputy Vladimir Gutenev, who is a member of the working group, told Kommersant that all materials for the report are planned to be collected by next Friday, and the document itself will contain an open and closed part. According to Mr. Gutenev, many of the identified problems “due to close cooperation with the Ministry of Defense” were resolved in a working order, so there was no need not only to make legislative changes, but even to include them in the report to the president. “On our part, a very clear selection is required in order to understand whether this or that identified problem is systemic or the problem arises through the fault of a particular performer,” the deputy concluded.

Andrey Ash, Ksenia Veretennikova