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They have guessed…

The first sessions of the State Duma in 2005 are accompanied by the spontaneous mass protest actions in many regions of the country. Thousands people are on streets, protesting against so-called "monetary compensation" (compensation of social allowances in money; the monetary indemnification) which has led to deterioration of a financial position of millions pensioners, invalids and other people, from lower-middle and lower classes.

"The Russian Federation is the social state, which politic is directed on creation of the conditions providing a worthy life and free development of the person. In Russian Federation the laws canceling or belittling the rights and freedom of the person and the citizen "should not be issued”, - is said in 7-th and 55-th clauses of the Russian Constitution.

But how these statutes are realized in fact? Check it out. According to the data of the Duma Committee on work and social policy, the minimal size of a payment (established by the State Duma) this year will make only 27 % from a living wage. Concerning the forecasts of the Government, declared at session of the State Duma, the number of the people living below the poverty line (which is also the result of some laws accepted by the State Duma) in 2005 will increase in comparison with the previous year, and may exceed 27 million people.

The law on replacement of social allowances with monetary indemnifications is not the only law striking the social rights of citizens, accepted in the past year. We shall name also the Housing code of the Russian Federation which has critically reduced the housing rights and social guarantees in housing sphere, which existed for many years, and has worsened the social living conditions of the majority of citizens of Russian Federation, first of all the poor ones.

The law on Federal Budget for 2005, submitted by the Government and approved by the Parliament may also be included here. Why? We shall give only one example. Despite of the fact that now in Russia the share of charges on public health services from a total internal product almost is twice less than the norms of the World Health Organization (5 %), deputies (with submission of the Government) has again cut down charges under this clause in comparison with the last year. Meanwhile, by opinion of Mr. Leonid Roshal’, the Director of Moscow Scientific Research Institute of urgent children's surgery, the situation with the Russian public health services is close to catastrophic.

The educational system is also not lucky nowadays. In 2004 The State Duma has approved the amendments to the Law on education and to the basis of Law on culture. These amendments, in particular, had cancelled the social allowances to rural teachers, social allowances for cultural development in regions, small cities in the North regions of state and even the privileged museum tickets for students, schoolboys and the soldiers. Also it was decided, that the state will finance only the standard of education reduced by 25 % in comparison with the existing one. It actually means the implementation of paid school education and decrease of level of knowledge for millions schoolboys which parents are not able to pay for additional classes. It also means the reduction of the teacher’s salary in connection with reduction of basic quantity of classes.

The economy on pensioners, invalids, veterans, teachers, students, schoolboys, soldiers develops on a background of the record prices for oil and huge additional incomes of its export! What are the highest state interests, which dictate these decisions?

As we see, activity of the Government, deputies of the State Duma and members of Council of Federation in some cases are contradicting the Constitution.

The State Duma-2004 amicably supported all governmental initiatives. Practically, any amendment to any bill (irrespective of its essence) has been doomed, if the author has not coordinated it with the Government. The law on “monetary compensation” is not unique, but it is the bright example of efficiency of such work. Defects of this law were obvious even at the stage of its’ submitting to the Duma. Last May, before consideration of the bill, the negative attitude to the given bill was stated by more than half of participants of the representative All-Russia poll, conducted by the "Public Expertise" Institute, founded by the Russian Union of Journalists.

"The main problem here is in the critical deficiency of a feedback between authority and a society. The authority lives by itself and the society also lives by itself. The law on “monetary compensation” was almost “pressed through” instead of really discussing it with people ", -noted Mr. Vladimir Lukin, the Human Rights Representative in Russian Federation.

To all appearances the mass protests on the bill were unexpected for its authors - the members of Government and deputies of the State Duma.

However the analysis of deputy’s activity in last year allows some doubts in it. The negative reaction of citizens to legislative activity of deputies was calculated by them in advance. It is testified by the fact that right before the acceptance of the law on “monetary compensation” and the Housing Code, two laws have been accepted, limiting opportunities of citizens to express their opinion publicly.

In one of them - in the law "About assemblies, meetings, demonstrations and processions" has appeared the restriction for organizers of public actions, which were not included in the law before. These restrictions have definitely lowered the probability of meetings and other actions conduction. And the new edition of the law "About the referendum in the Russian Federation" has considerably complicated procedure of initiation of a referendum and gathering of two millions signatures in its support: the minimal quantity of initiative group members has been increased in 45 times, and time allocated on the petition was reduced twice.

Both of these laws, as well as the law canceling elections of Russian regions Heads by the citizens, are examples of the result of activity of the State Duma in past year, showing that not only social but also the political rights of citizens were restrained.

In connection with relevancy of the “monetary compensation” theme it is useful to remind what the position of deputies of the State Duma was during the consideration of the given law and of some other laws which have caused the critical polemics and ambiguous reaction in a society.

We list here the results of voting during consideration of bills in the first reading, that is during consideration of their concepts (on a bill about the federal budget in the second reading; change in the bill on the Government was accepted at once in three readings).

This data was taken from the research of the “Public Expertise” Institute: "Authority - Society - Media", conducted with the support of the “Open Russia ".

Voting on the most important bills

We wonder how the deputies in coming year will please us? According to their statements, their next step is the audit of existing delays from army service, the increase in tax burden (the Duma is planning to change the concept of collection of the taxes on the real estate belonging to citizens: it is planned, that the tax will be paid off closely to market cost of houses and apartments, instead of according to BTI rules, as nowadays), and also the restriction of the rights and freedom of citizens during implementation of "terrorist danger mode". The witness to all these predictions is their initial edition of the bill "About counteraction to terrorism", which acceptance is planned on the spring session of the State Duma.

Perhaps, January events will convince deputies to be more considered with the voters?

Mr. Yuri SHTEIN,

Chief Consultant
”Public Expertise” Institute