Translated material
"This is a nod to all parties"
Vladislav Surkov on fine-tuning the Russian political system
The fine-tuning of the Russian political system will be completed by the summer. All changes proposed by President Dmitry Medvedev in the political block of the message to the Federal Assembly are either already in the State Duma or will arrive there in the very near future. “By the end of February, all bills will be submitted to parliament and adopted during the spring session,” First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov told reporters yesterday.The Kremlin will not agree to return direct elections of governors under any circumstances. “We will not follow the lead of some liberal figures who say that the more elections the better,” the Kremlin official said. In his opinion, direct elections of regional heads are in themselves neither a sign of freedom nor a guarantee of the successful development of the region and the country as a whole. Moreover, Mr. Surkov sees no reason for “nostalgia” for direct elections. The innovation, according to which parties that win regional elections will propose to the president candidates for leadership of the constituent entities of the federation, is a fairly democratic mechanism. “It is important that the candidate does not appear from the depths of offices where unknown mysterious people sit. A political party is a more massive and open system than a state machine,” Mr. Surkov is convinced.
The Kremlin official explained that the adjustment to the procedure for appointing regional heads does not mean that all gubernatorial vacancies will be entirely filled by members of United Russia. “Many took this as a nod to United Russia (other parties have not won regional elections in Russia recently - Ed. ), but this is absolutely not the case. This is a nod to all political parties,” he is convinced. The example of the former leader of the former SPS party Nikita Belykh, who became the governor of the Kirov region, is evidence of this, Mr. Surkov believes.
The easiest way turned out to be an amendment to the legislation, abolishing cash deposits for participants in the election process. It has already passed three readings in the State Duma and is in the Federation Council. The most difficult thing was to write down a document providing parliamentary parties with guarantees of coverage of their activities in state media. It will be one of the last to be submitted to the State Duma, but also during February. Basically, this honorable responsibility will fall on the VGTRK holding, but for now the law is under development. “Very clear formulations are needed,” Mr. Surkov admitted. The issue is not only in the mechanical provision of airtime and newspaper pages, but also in the content of journalistic materials. Deputies want to be talked about not only often, but also kindly.
A decision was made to gradually reduce the number of voter signatures in support of the nomination of federal lists of candidates for the elections of State Duma deputies to 100-120 thousand from the current 200 thousand. At the same time, the requirements for the minimum number of party members for its registration will be gradually reduced, from the current 50 thousand members to 40 --45, and in the future up to 30 thousand.
These amendments did not cause any particular controversy, unlike the proposal to provide the opportunity for representation in parliament for those parties that gain more than 5% but less than 7% in the elections. Most likely, they will get two or three places on Okhotny Ryad. Critics of this innovation believe that this measure is meaningless, since nothing can be resolved with two votes in the Duma. Vladislav Surkov does not accept these arguments. For decisions, 15 votes or 40 are not enough; there should be 226 of them, which in the current realities only the ruling party is capable of. The president's proposal on the need for rotation in the governing bodies of political parties will most likely be recorded in the mildest wording. Parties will have to carry out rotation, but how often and exactly which posts this duty will affect, they will decide independently.
Yesterday, the president submitted to the Duma a draft law giving local governments the right to remove heads of municipalities from office. The governor also has the right to raise the issue of official inconsistency of the city mayor, but must contact the local council. Thus, the Kremlin, without canceling elections at the local level, is strengthening control over the activities of local leaders. “Such a procedure - through local councils - will not allow settling scores if someone wants to take advantage of it,” Mr. Surkov is convinced.
As the first deputy head of the administration said, the president gave instructions to finalize amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes in terms of state secrets, treason and espionage. In December, a bill was introduced into the Duma, which, in particular, introduces criminal penalties of up to eight years in prison for illegally obtaining information constituting state secrets, for example, through blackmail or bribery, and also expands the definition of treason and espionage in the relevant articles of the Criminal Code. However, these amendments have drawn strong objections from experts who believe that they clearly expand the existing interpretation of these crimes.
“The head of state paid close attention to the opinions expressed on this matter in the media and society as a whole,” Mr. Surkov told reporters. According to him, “perhaps there is a risk of a broad interpretation of the concepts of “state secret,” “treason,” and “espionage.” The first deputy head of the Kremlin administration especially drew attention to the fact that the rights of citizens in connection with these amendments cannot be infringed and that it is necessary exclude the slightest possibility of unjustifiably bringing citizens to criminal liability.