What the Minister of Justice said about the integration of new regions

Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuychenko spoke at the government hour in the State Duma on the topic of integration of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. He began by saying that in the context of a special operation and “illegal actions on the part of unfriendly countries,” Russia faces various challenges. In such conditions, the Ministry of Justice ensures “the rule of law and the strengthening of statehood.” According to him, the theme of the government hour is connected with “the historical event, when a little more than a year ago the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions became part of our country,” this determined difficult tasks, including the integration of the regions into Russia.

Chuychenko said that more than 50 federal laws were adopted for integration. Now the process of integration of regions, according to him, is already completing in some areas – in the elections held in September, authorities were formed, and the formation of municipal government is ending.

The minister further explained what the department has done in certain areas of work in the new territories. In particular, the Ministry of Justice conducts a legal examination of regulatory legal acts in the regions for compliance with constitutional provisions and federal legislation. According to Chuichenko, the Ministry of Justice participated in the preparation of the Constitutions of the DPR and LPR and the statutes of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. He said that 1,730 existing acts of new regions have already been included in the federal register.

Another issue is the judicial system, in particular, the creation of courts and the selection of candidates for judges. The Ministry of Justice is also working with non-profit organizations that are engaged in bringing their constituent documents in accordance with Russian legislation. Chuichenko said that 777 NGOs are registered in four regions, including 18 regional branches of parties and 83 religious organizations. Another task is to ensure registration of civil status acts: in the LPR, registry offices began to operate in August 2023, in the DPR, a system of registry offices is now being created, in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, the bodies are in the process of formation. According to the minister, work is beginning in new regions to convert civil status records into electronic format. Moreover, more than half of the archives of civil registry offices contain documents in Ukrainian and other languages; about 16.5 million records need translation.

Chuychenko also spoke about the integration of the lawyer and notary community, in particular, representatives of the department, together with colleagues from the Federal Chamber of Lawyers and the Federal Chamber of Notaries, traveled through four regions in December 2022 and conducted exams for lawyers and notaries – now there are 518 lawyers and 282 notary. At the same time, he spoke about the problems that exist in the regions – there is an insufficient number of notaries and lawyers who work in criminal cases, the problem is especially acute in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. There are also difficulties with paying lawyers for their assigned participation in criminal cases. To solve the latter problem, it is planned to create state legal bureaus in the territories. Another problem is the storage of archives and transfer, including those that were held by Ukrainian notaries. Currently, the issues of transferring notarial archives have not been resolved in the Kherson region, where there is no corresponding legal act.

Penitentiary systems are integrated into the Russian penal system: 57 institutions have been created – of which 28 correctional institutions, five pre-trial detention centers, three correctional centers, four penal inspections and two medical units. There are 3,500 people in correctional institutions and 2,300 people in pre-trial detention centers. Work is underway to bring the sentences into compliance with Russian legislation – out of more than 3,000 materials, a third have been brought into compliance, Chuychenko said. The staffing level of the penal system in four regions turned out to be comparable to the number of those in pre-trial detention centers and prisons – 5,500 people work (and this is only half of the staffing level). There is an acute issue with exceeding the limits of pre-trial detention centers, for example, in the DPR – with a limit of 1,500 people, 1,765 people are detained. Now the Ministry of Justice is preparing a general layout for the placement of institutions of the penal system, Chuychenko said.

The minister said that now in these regions there is an acute problem – a lack of lawyers who know Russian legislation. To solve this problem, the Donbass State University of Justice under the Ministry of Justice was created on the basis of the Donbass Law Academy, where 2,500 students study, branches will soon open in the other three regions.

Chairman of the State Duma Control Committee Oleg Morozov recalled that the transition period for the integration of new regions is set until January 1, 2026, and the reporting period for integration is January 1, 2028. And the head of the State Duma Committee on State Construction Pavel Krasheninnikov said that of the 50 laws related with integration, part concerns civil legislation, criminal legislation, as well as the formation of the judicial system – for example, 15 laws were adopted on the last topic.