Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev / D. Astakhov / ITAR-TASS

Tomorrow, the State Duma Committee on Natural Resources is to make a decision: to recommend or not to recommend the government bill on amateur fishing for adoption in the first reading. Discussion of this initiative has been postponed several times. According to a source close to the State Duma leadership, deputies of the United Russia faction, who are part of the All-Russia People's Front (ONF), propose returning the document to the government for revision. The committee will support the proposal, the Vedomosti source believes.

Committee member and ONF activist Leonid Ogul confirmed that he would propose returning the bill for revision. It is impossible to pass it in the first reading and then make amendments in the second, explains the deputy. Everything needs to be amended. The document in its current form does not meet the goals that Vladimir Putin outlined when he declared before the presidential elections that amateur fishermen should be provided with free and open fishing, Ogul continues. Head of the ONF federal organizing committee Andrei Bocharov said that the topic had been worked out in the front sections and therefore it is logical that ONF deputies will raise this issue.

The bill establishes the right to free and unpaid fishing in almost all public water bodies, with the exception of water bodies provided for paid amateur fishing (recreational fishing farms), the area of which should not exceed 10% of the water fund in each region. This and other provisions of the bill were criticized by fishing enthusiasts - their proposals were accumulated by the ONF. Activists proposed to postpone the bill and conduct a more complete public discussion.

Following criticism from United Russia and the ONF, the position of Rosrybolovstvo, which had previously not denied that it was the main developer of the bill, has also changed. This document does not protect the great Russian rivers, such as the Volga, from the creation of paid fishing farms, said Rosrybolovstvo head Andrei Krayniy in March, noting that the document submitted to the Duma is not exactly the one his department had prepared.

The bill could have been returned for revision earlier, but, according to a person close to the presidential administration, they did not do this until Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s report – in order to reduce the image losses for the United Russia leader.

Chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources, member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction Vladimir Kashin, on the contrary, believes that the bill can be adopted in the first reading. Its consideration was postponed twice, the committee made a concession anyway, holding a zero reading, during which more than 40 comments were taken into account, says Kashin. The decision to withdraw the bill can be made by order from above at any time, for this it is not even necessary to hold a committee meeting, notes Kashin.

In the 1990s, almost every second government bill was rejected, says deputy Alexei Mitrofanov, but this practice died out in the new century, when "zero readings" began to be used. Problems arise only with bills on which there is a dispute between departments - it is proposed to resolve it at the State Duma, but the case of refusal to consider even the first reading is extremely rare. Apparently, the story with the fishing was considered completely odious, suggests Mitrofanov.

State Duma may reject fishing bill