Closer to the people

The Duma invites a pensioner as an expert on housing and communal services

Yesterday the State Duma did not support Boris Nadezhdin’s bill proposing to strengthen the connection between members of the Federation Council and the regions that delegated them. According to current legislation, the governor and the regional Duma have the right to recall a senator without giving reasons. The senators were dissatisfied with such dependence of local authorities, and the Duma centrists decided to make their life easier. At the end of last year, a bill from the Unity faction was adopted in the first reading, prohibiting regions from recalling a senator during the first year of his work and giving the upper house of parliament the right to block a recall initiated by a government body of a subject of the Federation. Mr. Nadezhdin responded by proposing a rule under which local authorities would still be able to recall a member of the Federation Council if he systematically votes contrary to the official position of regional legislators.

In his report on the bill, Deputy Nadezhdin used the current topic of cold weather as an argument: “In the regions, people freeze because local bosses have no money. And the chamber, designed to protect the interests of the regions, consists of people who have nothing to do with them.” Mr. Nadezhdin also spoke about the complaint of the Murmansk Regional Duma against its senator, who “lost contact with the Duma and avoids communicating with deputies.”

Vasily Shandybin, with Bolshevik directness, aggravated the problem: “The Kremlin is imposing its members of the Federation Council. Everyone knows that places there are bought by criminal organizations.” Communists and agrarians supported the law, and Yabloko considered it a half-measure, proposing a radical solution to the issue - transferring the Federation Council to an elective basis. In the end, only 162 votes were cast in favor.

In general, the topic of housing and communal services was cross-cutting at yesterday's State Duma meeting. A resolution was adopted to appeal to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov about measures to reform and modernize the housing and communal services sector. Deputies, in particular, ask the prime minister to assess the technical condition of heat supply systems. At the end of last week, the prime minister promised to deliver a report on housing and communal services in the Duma on February 12.

In addition to Kasyanov, the deputies wanted to see Nina Bazdyreva, a pensioner from Kursk, who won a lawsuit against city utilities. Compensation for the cold in the apartment was assessed by the court at 12 thousand rubles. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Lyubov Sliska personally called the woman and invited her to share her heroic experience with the deputies. But Ms. Bazdyreva is still slow to answer. She now has other matters: the city housing and communal services committee filed a complaint against her in the regional court, and the pensioner is preparing to continue the litigation.

Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA