What will the State Duma do in the coming week?

State Duma deputies are returning to legislative activity after the regional week: on Monday, the council of the lower house will approve its work plan for the coming week. The list of documents planned for consideration includes a number of government initiatives with a social orientation and draft international agreements. In addition, this week the Duma is going to “clean up” its portfolio by considering a large number of parliamentary opposition bills, mostly of a populist nature, recommended by relevant committees for rejection.

In the first plenary week of October, the Duma will consider issues of ratification of a number of international treaties. Thus, on October 10, deputies will discuss an agreement between the governments of Russia and Kyrgyzstan on the creation of joint schools with instruction in Russian on the territory of this Central Asian country. And on October 12, an agreement with Belarus on the mutual recognition and execution of decisions in cases of administrative offenses in the field of road traffic and a protocol on amendments to the 2012 agreement with Abkhazia on the regime for trade in goods can be ratified.

In addition, last Friday, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin announced in his Telegram channel that the issue of revoking ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) will be considered at the next Duma council. The day before, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia could take such a step to behave in a “mirror way” towards the United States, which has still not ratified the document that was opened for signature back in 1996. The Russian parliament ratified the CTBT in 2000.

On domestic issues, several government initiatives are planned for this week. Thus, on October 10, the Duma will consider in the third reading a bill on optimizing the powers of the Cabinet of Ministers, introduced in September 2022. It involves the transfer of a number of government powers (in the sphere of economics, healthcare, environmental protection, education and culture) to the level of federal ministries and is included in the Duma plan for the implementation of the President’s message to the Federal Assembly. Another document from this plan was recommended by the Duma Defense Committee to be considered in the first reading on October 11: this is an initiative of a group of deputies and senators to provide land plots to heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia, as well as full holders of the Order of Glory.

On October 10, the Duma will discuss several government bills with a social orientation in the first reading. One of them involves the possibility of using maternity capital funds to reconstruct a house in a blocked building. The project was introduced on June 13 in pursuance of the decision of the Constitutional Court (CC) of December 21, 2022: mother of three children Anastasia Drobkova from the Arkhangelsk region wanted to expand her apartment, located in a one-story building, by adding premises, but the Pension Fund did not allow the use of these goals maternity capital. The Constitutional Court took the side of the applicant, and the government developed appropriate amendments.

Another government initiative establishes the possibility of creating physical culture and sports organizations under federal bodies that are involved in the development of military and service sports (introduced on July 13). In addition, the Duma will consider a Cabinet bill allowing citizens to receive social benefits for the burial of a deceased relative upon application through the government services portal (introduced on August 3). Another government project (introduced on July 6), the first reading of which is scheduled for October 10, introduces a single questionnaire for municipal and state civil servants when applying for a job.

Also on October 10, deputies will consider two initiatives of the Supreme Court (SC) regarding the jurisdiction of crimes of a terrorist nature (introduced on June 5). In accordance with Part 6 of Art. 31 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the consideration of cases of such crimes falls under the jurisdiction of the 1st Eastern, 2nd Western, Central and Southern District Military Courts. The explanatory note states that from year to year there are more and more such cases. Therefore, in order to save the working time of judges, and at the same time travel expenses, the Supreme Court proposes to give the authority to consider cases of crimes with elements of terrorism to all district and naval military courts in accordance with their jurisdiction.

The plans for the week also include a large number of parliamentary opposition bills recommended by relevant committees for rejection. Among them are LDPR amendments to the Criminal Code, expanding the scope of necessary self-defense; proposals from the same Liberal Democrats on monthly payments to housewives, on the resumption of indexation of pensions for working pensioners and on the introduction of a minimum hourly wage; initiatives of “A Just Russia – For Truth” on increasing the minimum wage, on moving the date of the single voting day to the second Sunday of October and on the procedure for granting political asylum; bills of the “New People” on simplifying the acquisition of Russian citizenship for highly qualified specialists and on shortening the New Year holidays with the parallel establishment of non-working holidays in the period from May 1 to May 5. Finally, this list includes a bill from United Russia member Konstantin Zatulin on the legislative definition of the concept of “compatriot,” which was not supported by either the government or the relevant State Duma committee for CIS affairs. The initiative was submitted to the Duma in March last year, and since then the dates for its consideration have been repeatedly postponed.

Ksenia Veretennikova