The new procedure for forming the Federation Council is designed to strengthen the connection between senators and the regions. The vertical of power will become even more centralized, the expert fears

Vladimir Putin submitted to the State Duma a bill on a new procedure for forming the Federation Council. On Wednesday, the president personally presented the document at a meeting of the upper house of parliament.

According to the bill, only deputies of regional legislative assemblies will have the right to be senators. According to Putin, a member of the Federation Council “must not only have a direct connection with the region, but also be an elected representative of the population of a subject of the Federation, that is, go through regional elections and receive the support of citizens.” Future senators must reside continuously in the region for five years prior to nomination. This requirement does not apply to current senators or State Duma deputies at the time of elections.

The candidate for the post of governor will now have to nominate three candidates for the post of senator during the election campaign, one of which he will be obliged to appoint as his representative in the Federation Council in case of victory in the elections. “In fact, the person who intends to be elected governor will represent to the citizens not only himself, but also the key members of his team and takes full political and personal responsibility for the nominated candidates to the Federation Council,” Putin explained, as quoted by RIA Novosti . According to the head of state, “if one of the newly appointed candidates resigns for some reason or leaves the chamber, there must be a full-fledged replacement for him.” Governors and regional legislative assemblies will no longer be able to initiate the termination of the powers of senators. According to the president, this will “strengthen the independence and political weight of each senator.”

Under the new order, the non-partisan principle of work must be preserved. “This does not mean that senators cannot be members of one party or another, but they will not be able to create factions and other party associations in the chamber,” Putin explained.

With the adoption of the new law, “the procedure for forming the Federation Council should become more democratic, and the upper house itself should become more “regional” in its composition,” the head of state concluded. According to the new law, the age of senators should not be below 21 years, the prime minister specified.

The procedure for forming the Federation Council is expected to be introduced on January 1, 2013. Senators elected before the new law came into force will continue to serve until new members of the upper house are empowered in accordance with the updated procedure for its formation. An explanatory note to the bill was published on the Kremlin website.

Currently, each region in the Federation Council is represented by two senators. One is nominated by the legislative branch of the subject, the second by the executive. The same will happen with the new procedure for forming the chamber. However, now the legislative and executive powers can at any time recall their representative from the upper house, which they will no longer be able to do under the new procedure for forming the Federation Council.

The law is aimed at forcing legislative bodies to further centralize, Andrei Buzin, head of the election monitoring department of the Golos association, told Forbes. Now senators will depend less on regional authorities and more on federal ones, the expert is skeptical. “We have been observing all this since the early 2000s. The highlight of the centralization campaign was 2005, when a fully proportional system of elections to the State Duma was introduced,” he recalls. The new bill is inconsistent: “very recently we took a step towards decentralization - we brought back direct elections of governors, now we are taking a step back,” explains Buzin. Instead of making radical changes and moving to direct elections of the Federation Council (as has been done in many federal republics, including the United States), Russia has again undergone a “cosmetic renovation,” the expert concludes.

Despite the fact that the Constitution provides for the formation of the Federation Council, now a procedure for direct elections of the upper house is actually being introduced, argues Senator from the Perm Territory Alexander Pochinok. At the same time, according to him, it is impossible to introduce direct elections of the Federation Council - this would require changing the basic law, which is “always undesirable.” “I have a very positive assessment of the new law,” says the parliamentarian. “It is very correct that three of his candidates for the post of senator will run together with the governor, as a result, the population will no longer have questions about where the representatives of their regions in the Federation Council come from.” “They will be elected, will become less dependent on the will of the boss, will work a full term and will be responsible for their work to voters,” the senator notes in an interview with Forbes.

Putin tied senators to regions