Without examination in Ukraine
Speaker of the state Duma Vyacheslav Volodin has not yet begun to revive the group on the legal analysis of legislative procedures and accepted in Ukraine, legal acts, said the staff of the Parliament. The parliamentary group was created by former speaker of the lower house Sergei Naryshkin March 11, 2014. In addition to deputies it included senators, members of the staff of the state Duma and members of the Public chamber and teachers of MGIMO and Moscow state University.
“All of the Commission under the Chairman of the state Duma formed his order. Executive order creating the group under the Ukrainian legislation is not” — said the Deputy Alexei Didenko (LDPR), which was part of the group at Naryshkin. If the group is recreated, he doesn’t know.
According to another source in the state Duma, is now in the lower house audit of all working groups and expert councils under the speaker. The audit can be decided on the abolition of several commissions and councils, said another source in the office of the lower house.
The head of the group for legal analysis of legislative procedures and accepted in Ukraine, legal acts in the previous convocation was the Chairman of the Committee on constitutional legislation and state construction Vladimir Pligin (United Russia) that the new Duma has not got.
The last time the group met last summer. When Plegine members of the group have released 11 books and expert opinions. Naryshkin emphasized that the purpose of the group is to convey to the colleagues in the European Parliament, first of all, to the Venice Commission (Advisory body to the Council of Europe on matters of constitutional law) information “concerning legitimacy of decisions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine”.
At the group meeting in may 2015, Naryshkin said that the Verkhovna Rada adopts “acts of questionable content, which can not be called laws.” “Rather, it is the patterns of injustice, although in a purely formal and are known as the laws”, — said the speaker.
Among the documents that have been particular criticism of the members of the group were Ukrainian law on decommunization. One of the authors of this document by the Ukrainian MP, the son of the commander of the Ukrainian insurgent army (UPA) Yuriy Shukhevych. “This is a profound attempt by the legal authorities to change many of the historical approaches”, — said Pligin.
Criticized Pligin, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko for the fact that he “arbitrarily expanding its powers.” And the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada statement on Russia as the aggressor country, and offer the Ukrainian Parliament to recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics terrorist organizations, in his opinion, undermine the constitutional reform in Ukraine.Member of the public chamber, former MP Sergei Markov explains the work of the group that, in contrast to Naryshkin, Volodin is not particularly interested in foreign policy issues.
Less aid to the Donbass
Its structure is devoted to the problems because of the conflict in Ukraine, there are in the Federation Council. The Committee of public support residents of the South-East of Ukraine in the upper house his work still continues, but to gather became much less common. The Committee appeared in 2014 on the initiative of the speaker Valentina Matvienko.
The last meeting of the Committee members was held in October of this year, the next time the senators gather on December 15, said Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on rules Sergey Mamedov involved in the structure of assistance to refugees from the Donbass. In 2014, the Committee met weekly, then monthly, now bimonthly, said Mammadov.
According to him, the deputies of the Duma group on analysis of legislation of Ukraine in the work of the Committee also participated.
Rare meeting in the Federation Council, the Senator explains the low flow of refugees from the South-East of Ukraine, which stopped in droves to leave their homes after adoption in February 2015 Minsk agreements, and a sharp decline in the intensity of the fighting. “We are establishing some kind of peaceful life, begin enterprise work, but we will definitely continue to transfer humanitarian aid to the Donbass, is the main task of our Committee,” — said Mammadov.
In Committee meetings in addition to the senators was attended by state Duma deputies, members of the Public chamber, public men and employees of the presidential administration. Also, they often were made by the representatives of the DNI and the LC, in particular the former Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleg tsarov, the self-proclaimed representatives of the Donetsk Republic Denis Pushilin and Andriy Purgin.
Close to the Kremlin source said that the agenda of the Senate Committee, oversaw a team of assistant to the President Vladislav Surkov from the presidential administration on socio-economic cooperation with States-participants of CIS. In particular, at the meeting of the Committee in past years has come to office staff, Inal Ardzinba and Boris Rapoport. Because Russia initially did not recognize the self-proclaimed Republic, the organ of the Council of the Federation appeared for the official interaction with representatives of DND and LNR, said close to control of Surkov source.
The decline in interest
Group analysis of Ukrainian legislation has shown that it is meaningless, because the Ukrainians did not wonder that the deputies of the state Duma believe that their laws are bad, said political analyst Alexei Makarkin. The interest to Ukraine in the political circles has faded into the background, and the project “new Russia” has failed, the analyst explained low activity of the Committee for the assistance of the Federation Council and the suspension of the work group on analysis of legislation of Ukraine of the state Duma. Ukrainian theme, according to him, now only interested in the mass audience who watches talk shows on TV. “Now there’s even physical reach and interest people have,” said Makarkin.
“The composition of the Duma was changed, so it is natural that the new Duma leadership is reviewing the priorities”, — said political analyst Abbas Gallyamov. According to him, the interest in Ukraine is falling, the emphasis is shifting towards domestic agenda, so we need to analyse their own laws, not “understand how are things in the neighborhood.” Such working groups and commissions are an indicator of the interest of the government to this or that problem.
