United Russia will add new to the old – Newspaper Kommersant No. 199 (7400) of 10/26/2022

The meeting of the program committee of United Russia (ER), held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Dmitry Medvedev, was devoted to two main topics. The first concerned the social obligations fixed in the “people’s program” of the party: United Russia members noted with satisfaction that all the necessary funds were allocated in the draft budget for their implementation. The second topic was related to the support of new Russian territories: a new section will be devoted to them in the party program, Andrey Turchak, secretary of the United Russia General Council, promised.

The meeting of the EP program commission on October 25 was held behind closed doors (the party members did not explain the reasons for this), and it was possible to learn about the discussion only from messages in the official Telegram channel of the party. Judging by them, United Russia focused on two main topics: social obligations to citizens and the development of new territories.

UR Chairman Dmitry Medvedev stressed that each member of the party bears personal responsibility for the implementation of the “people’s program”: “From ordinary activists to deputies, senators and the top leadership of the UR. Every party member, every primary organization, every faction in parliament. And there should not be any discounts for a difficult situation.” He also recalled that in order to fulfill the social obligations of the EP in the budget for 2023, it is planned to increase social spending by 1.6%: in particular, funds for the payment of maternity capital and childbirth allowances have been significantly increased. In addition, United Russia must guarantee “Russian social standards” to all “new citizens.” The necessary additions to the “people’s program” is already being prepared by the working group of the program commission headed by Andrei Turchak, the chairman of the EP said.

Andrei Makarov, head of the State Duma Budget Committee, called the 2023 draft budget “the best budget that could be formed in this situation.” “The priority of the budget was determined primarily as the unconditional fulfillment of all social obligations,” he once again focused on social topics. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov repeated this thesis once again: he confirmed that all social obligations are provided with the necessary resources, mentioning the indexation of basic benefits, an increase in payments due to an increase in the living wage and an increase in the minimum wage. “The draft budget also provides for an increase in the salaries of public sector employees,” the minister added.

In the meantime, the EP Telegram channel decided to supplement the party speakers and released a sign “What other provisions of the people’s program in education are provided in the draft budget for 2023-2025?”. Along with funds for free hot meals for schoolchildren (4.3 billion rubles) and expenses for 10 thousand additional places in kindergartens (6.5 billion rubles), it also mentions payments to advisers to school directors on educational work, which “will appear throughout the country” (the amount of these costs is not indicated in the table).

Party members spoke about the growth of spending on the development of education, the healthcare system and the promotion of employment at a meeting of the program commission. In addition, it discussed the support of the participants in the special operation. Thus, State Duma Vice Speaker Anna Kuznetsova proposed not to take into account the income of fighters when calculating the universal allowance for their families. “I would ask you to work on this topic,” Dmitry Medvedev readily responded.

Andrei Turchak “circled” the meeting, returning to the topic of restoring the Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. He proposed to the party to provide for these purposes a separate section in the “people’s program”, and to the government – to establish a special state program. “As we agreed, we her (program.— “b”) will be corrected, a new section will appear there. We have a proposal for the government: to combine funding for the implementation of all activities in the new territories into a single state program. This will give consistency and transparency to the work and will allow to concentrate resources on achieving key goals. Naturally, we are talking about those sections of the program that relate to civilian infrastructure,” Mr. Turchak explained.

According to Dmitry Medvedev, at a meeting on October 25, United Russia had to determine those provisions of the “people’s program” that require additional study with the government. Andriy Turchak, in this regard, said that his working group is considering 92 proposals to supplement the program, some of which relate to amendments to the budget for the second reading.

The head of the Petersburg Politics Foundation, Mikhail Vinogradov, believes that United Russia is focusing on the topic of new territories, both due to hardware calculations and focusing on the fact that the population remaining there may be more loyalist than the average for Russia. “But in the context of a shortage of military news positive for the Russian side, it is necessary to increase the emphasis on the socio-economic component,” the political scientist argues.

Andrey Vinokurov