Interests of the Ministry of Defense and the security bloc

Evgenia Pravo, “Layout” Editorial Board February 15, 2024 |

What bills were lobbied for in the State Duma in January?

The DumaBingo team, together with Layout, will talk every month about in whose interests bills are actually introduced and adopted - businesses, departments and various industries. Today we will look at the January initiatives: parliamentarians introduced 41 bills and, after three readings, approved five . The proposals were very different, and some of them contained signs of lobbying.

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What are potentially lobbying bills?

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A lobbying bill is an initiative that parliamentarians introduce/support in the interests of specific companies, industries, departments, and so on. Lobbying initiatives have several characteristics: they are usually introduced individually or by a small number of authors, their authors are from different factions and committees. Also, the authors of such innovations are associated with a specific industry, company or department for which they may be useful. To determine whether a bill is lobbying, DumaBingo analysts look at the composition of its authors, study their connections, family, possible business interests, all possible backgrounds and draw conclusions.

About "SVO"

A group of senators and deputies, which also includes members of the working group on SVO issues, led by Andrei Turchak, proposed exempting companies and individuals from paying state duties for equipment donated to the front. We are talking about the duty for state registration and other actions of recipients of equipment (cars, ships), which is given to the front for humanitarian missions and the needs of fighters under donation agreements. Given the composition of the authors and the positive feedback from the government, the bill is likely to be adopted.

The Ministry of Defense is an interested party in the project. For example, at the end of 2023 it was reported that the department would receive 1,500 new UAZ Patriot cars free of charge from the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant.

The “systemic opposition” also continues to introduce initiatives on the current military agenda: on compensation for volunteers who provide humanitarian assistance to war participants in Ukraine, and on the status of combat veterans for military correspondents of the Russian media who work in the Northern Military District zone. The bills were proposed by the LDPR and A Just Russia, respectively . Despite the fact that these initiatives were introduced by specific party members, they can benefit individuals - volunteer organizations and military officers. However, the likelihood of their approval is very low, because on military issues only proposals from the working group led by Turchak are traditionally accepted.

The power bloc insists

The inter-factional bill on expanding the list of crimes, the commission of which deprives a person of acquired Russian citizenship, has a great chance of being approved by parliament. According to the initiative, it will be possible to lose citizenship for any intentional grave or especially grave crime, as well as for preparation or attempt to commit it. From United Russia, the authors were Mikhail Sheremet and Alexander Boroday , who actively participated in the annexation of Crimea and are affiliated with the security bloc - one of the interests in the project. It is interesting that earlier this same idea - about deprivation of citizenship for committing serious crimes - was expressed by representatives of the Investigative Committee.

Also, most likely, the initiative of deputies of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, headed by Alexander Khinshtein, to simplify the mechanism for blocking “mirror” sites will be adopted. It is proposed to transfer the authority to recognize a site as a “mirror” from the Ministry of Digital Development directly to Roskomnadzor.

Education for foreigners and other initiatives

Deputies representing the interests of the educational sector in parliament - Sergei Kabyshev and Alexander Mazhuga - proposed allowing foreigners to receive education in bachelor's and specialty programs not only in educational organizations, but also in scientific ones. The beneficiaries of the initiative may be four scientific organizations that now have the right to train students in the specialty program: National Medical Research Center named after V. A. Almazov, Russian Scientific Center for Surgery named after Academician B. V. Petrovsky, Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN), Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Deputies Kabyshev and Mazhuga are lobbyists in the education sector. Both are members of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education. Almost all of their initiatives, except for those in the Duma, concern the work of schools, colleges, universities, scientists and teachers. In addition, this is not the first time that Kabyshev and Mazhuga have developed bills in co-authorship. For example, the deputies jointly introduced an initiative to grant universities in Skolkovo the right to independently approve educational standards.

Deputies of the Committee on Property, Land and Property Relations proposed expanding the list of situations when claims against bankrupt banks can be paid off with compensation. It is proposed to include the requirements of first-priority creditors. The bill is beneficial to the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). The chairman of the committee , Sergei Gavrilov , noted that 90% of the claims of the first stage are precisely the claims of the DIA for the insurance compensation paid.

A group of deputies and senators proposed an initiative in the interests of resource supply organizations. Their subsidiaries will have the right to become paying agents. Among the authors are representatives of housing and communal services interests in parliament - Sergei Pakhomov and Pavel Kachkaev .

Confiscation for fakes and other laws adopted in the third reading

The main initiative that attracted media attention last month is the confiscation of property from those who distribute military “fakes” and for “activities directed against the security of Russia” under certain circumstances. This is a “Duma” initiative, which can be called a “mass grave”: it was signed by 395 deputies.

Only 9 days passed from the moment it was introduced until it was approved by the State Duma. The proposal was developed with the participation of the presidential administration: this is indicated by the fact that the initiative did not encounter obstacles and was quickly adopted . “Layout” also wrote that the bill was an initiative of State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, but found support in the Kremlin, despite its imperfections.

A bill was also adopted to extend until March 1, 2031 the ability of SNT to register public property in a simplified manner (for example, board houses, buildings used for general needs, linear objects). According to the law, the deadline is now until January 1, 2024. The simplified procedure assumes that for state registration of objects you only need a declaration drawn up and certified by the chairman of the SNT, and title documents for the land plot on which the property is located . Among the authors of the project , Oleg Valenchuk is the chairman of the Union of Gardeners of Russia.

Parliament supported the social initiative of the Liberal Democratic Party, which prohibits the dismissal of a single parent with a child under 16 years of age. The bill almost immediately received approval from the government and State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. Factional bills that do not involve United Russia members are rarely adopted by parliament. Perhaps the LDPR initiative has received approval in light of the upcoming elections.

The bill of Turchak’s working group on “SVO” issues also passed the third reading. Its authors proposed suspending fixed-term service contracts of civil servants and renewing them after the citizen returns from the SVO. This is one of many bills that are regularly introduced by the working group on issues of mobilization and social support for SVO participants and adopted by parliament.

Cover: Dmitry Osinnikov

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