Two State Duma deputies may resign early

The State Duma Commission on issues of monitoring the reliability of information on income, property and property-related obligations presented by deputies, and mandate issues introduced draft resolutions on the early termination of powers of deputies Sergei Sokol and Igor Kastyukevich, should from documents in the system for supporting legislative activity. The issue may be considered on September 19.

“Consider the powers of State Duma deputy Sergei Mikhailovich Sokol, elected in the Khakassian single-mandate electoral district N35 (Republic of Khakassia), to be terminated early on September 15, 2023, on the basis of his written application to resign as deputy,” the document says.

Kastyukevich, elected in the federal electoral district as part of the federal list of candidates nominated by United Russia, can also resign based on his written application.

The resolutions will come into force from the date of adoption.

On June 10, Sokol was nominated as a candidate from the United Russia party for the election of the head of Khakassia. On July 21, he was admitted to the Abakan hospital with a diagnosis of peritonitis and was operated on. On August 1, Sokol reported that he had been discharged. August 31 Sokola urgently hospitalized to the intensive care unit of the Moscow hospital named after. A. A. Vishnevsky with complications after illness. On September 2 he stripped off his candidacy from the elections due to health reasons.

As Vedomosti previously wrote, Sokol can head the Legislative Assembly of Khakassia. According to a source close to United Russia, the first meeting of the Supreme Council will take place on September 22, at which Sokol will be elected chairman.

Kastyukevich did not answer Vedomosti’s calls. As a source close to the deputy told Vedomosti, Kastyukevich may soon become speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Kherson region. Since 2022, he has headed the regional branch of the party in the region, and also headed the list of the party in power along with the acting governor Vladimir Saldo and the director of the Novaya Kakhovka bakery Elena Dmitruk.

President of the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation Mikhail Vinogradov notes that cases when the center strengthens regional parliaments with State Duma deputies have occurred quite rarely. According to him, one can only recall the situation in 2018, when Sokol was appointed speaker of the legislative assembly of the Irkutsk region. “It was aimed at the governor’s post, but it didn’t work out then,” he added.