Translated material
Federation Council and love
The Senate fought with the Duma throughout the spring session, but continued to stamp out laws approved by it.
On Wednesday, the Federation Council ended its spring session with difficulty. More precisely, with shock labor. The agenda of the last meeting included more than 80 issues. Members of the Senate had, in particular, to consider the law on the creation of a new subject within Russia - the Trans-Baikal Territory, on the introduction of compulsory 11-year school education, on the development of small and medium-sized businesses, on a ten-year residency requirement for the senators themselves. And also to approve the first three-year federal budget in the history of Russia . And the senators did it. It is not for nothing that there are more and more athletes in the upper house - yesterday, for example, the President of the Russian Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev became a senator from the Rostov region.A former athlete, personal friend and alpine skiing coach of President Vladimir Putin, he plays on the United Russia political team. Therefore, the Chairman of the Federation Council and leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov, this time could not resist the growth in the number of United Russia members in his chamber. There is little that connects Mr. Tyagachev with Rostov, but, as you know, there are already many athletes in the Federation Council from regions “non-native” to them. Most recently, the former captain of the Moscow football team Spartak, player of the Italian Roma and Portuguese Porto, Dmitry Alenichev, became a senator from the legislative assembly of the Omsk region. Handball goalkeeper, three-time Olympic champion Andrei Lavrov represents the Ryazan region in the Federation Council, the former top scorer of Russian mini-football Konstantin Eremenko represents the Voronezh region. Ex-footballer of Moscow “Spartak” Valery Gladilin has been representing the Ust-Ordynsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug, which will soon become part of the Irkutsk region, for more than three years. And the head of the Russian Football Union, Vitaly Mutko, was confirmed as a senator from the administration of St. Petersburg even before his appointment to the post of the main football boss of Russia.
By the way, at the last meeting, members of the Federation Council adopted a bill on their settled life. Amendments have been made to the federal law “On the procedure for forming the Federation Council”, providing that only a citizen who, since reaching the age of 18, has lived in the territory of this region for at least ten years in total, can be elected as a senator from a region. At the suggestion of Sergei Mironov, this norm will not apply to current members of the Federation Council until the end of their term of office, as well as in the event of their appointment for a new term from the same entities whose representatives they were at the time of adoption of the law. If the region that the senator represented ceased to exist as a result of unification, it will be possible to remain a senator from the newly formed entity. Also, for some reason, the residency requirement does not apply to representatives of law enforcement agencies.
Today, according to the speaker of the upper house Sergei Mironov, two-thirds of senators do not meet the residency requirement.
This year, senators, by tradition, were extremely loyal to all bills coming from the lower house. They rejected with the conciliation commission only two documents for the entire spring session - amendments to the law “On the general principles of organization of legislative and executive bodies of state power of the subjects” (in terms of optimizing the activities of the state veterinary service of the Russian Federation and increasing the efficiency of decision-making in the face of a threat of spread especially dangerous animal diseases on the territory of Russia), as well as amendments to the law “On the Protection of Consumer Rights” and the Civil Code (in terms of improving the provisions for the return of consumer loans, the conditions for replacing technically complex goods, and the remote method of selling goods).
True, at the beginning of the session, the stumbling block for the Senate was the agreement on the division of powers with Tatarstan. Then the senators were not satisfied with so many points of the agreement introduced by the President of Russia that they courageously rejected it. Yesterday, the Federation Council approved a new option, also approved by President Vladimir Putin, without even discussing it. Observers believed that last time the senators did not express their legal literacy or political integrity. It’s just that the agreement with Tatarstan became the apotheosis of the struggle of “United Russia” in the Duma and “A Just Russia” in the Federation Council.
Relations between the two parties in power and, as a result, between the two chambers of parliament during the spring regional election campaign became extremely tense. It turned out that this year such a usually quiet government body as the Federation Council continued to lead a measured legislative life (the number of laws initiated by senators did not exceed five or six), but at the same time became an arena of active party struggle.
At first, the Duma members tried to deprive Sergei Mironov of some of his powers. Amendments introduced by the United Russia Duma to the laws “On the procedure for forming the Federation Council” and “On the status of a member of the Federation Council” deprived the speaker of the upper house of parliament of the right to single-handedly initiate the issue of early recall of senators. The document also established a 30-day period during which the Federation Council is obliged to confirm the beginning of the powers of a newly elected senator. As for the initiative to early terminate the powers of a senator, according to the bill, such a proposal can only be submitted if it is supported by at least one third of the members of the Federation Council.
Then Speaker Mironov competed with United Russia members in lawmaking on the topic of electing senators. As soon as Mr. Mironov announced his next version of the law, the St. Petersburg United Russia members initiated an almost similar bill. By electing senators, United Russia hoped to increase its representation in the Federation Council, and Speaker Mironov hoped to increase the political status of the chamber. Moreover, judging by sociological surveys of the population, the Senate remains an uninfluential body of federal power. After the announcement of the results of elections to regional parliaments on March 11, it turned out that in one region (Stavropol Territory) United Russia unexpectedly lost to Fair. After this, United Russia members from St. Petersburg promised not to reappoint Sergei Mironov to the Senate (elections, in particular, were held for the St. Petersburg City Legislative Assembly, after which, by law, the new composition of the Duma had to appoint a senator from the region). But the parties managed to agree - Sergei Mironov remained a senator from St. Petersburg and speaker of the Federation Council, and the St. Petersburg legislative assembly was again headed by United Russia member Vadim Tyulpanov.