Vladimir Putin

Let’s return to St. Petersburg, the city where the first State Duma met 115 years ago. In the same hall, day after day during the outgoing week, Vladimir Putin met with modern lawmakers. We talked about how deputies and senators can and should help people. The topic is especially relevant ahead of the new parliamentary elections scheduled for September.

From the meeting of the first State Duma of the country to the Council of Legislators – the path is a whole century long. But, as then in 1906, and now, everyone entering this historic Duma hall is responsible to those who elected him. The people’s choice is not just words.

– If a person cannot get what he is entitled to by law, it is imperative to react to it as quickly as possible. Please use in such cases the entire arsenal of deputy and senatorial powers in order to quickly understand and help each individual person, ”says Vladimir Putin.

This is especially important now, when, in the wake of the President’s message, from July 1, single parents with children from 8 to 16 years old should start receiving monthly allowances. If the income of such an incomplete family is below the subsistence level.

“We all understand very well that the children growing up in these families, unfortunately, are in the most vulnerable position. This is not the last thing that we must do together. So, Tatyana Alekseevna knows, we are working on these issues together, we will do everything gradually, but we will definitely do further, we will continue to build our programs to support Russian families, but in stages.

For MPs from the regions, this annual Council of Legislators is an opportunity to be heard. The president spoke a lot about supporting the republics and regions in his message. But it is important that any assistance to the subjects is rendered on the principle of “all are equal”.

– So that there is no one who has greater penetrating power and more freely enters a particular office, he will receive more ambulances or more funds for development, budget loans, this should not be so. This is where justice should be. So that these are certain rules of the game, uniform for everyone, certain requirements, uniform methods, and if the regions lag behind, on the one hand, they must be spurred on, of course, motivated, and on the other hand, help, understand what the problem is, – I am sure Valentina Matvienko, Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.

State Duma deputies will begin to consider the first social amendments this month. As it turned out, the initiative can be brought to a whole draft of the law in three days.

When only a few months are left before the elections to the State Duma and regional parliaments, it is important that, in the pursuit of political points, the deputies do not forget that in September they will not be assessed for empty promises. The President urged to conduct election campaigns honestly and transparently: “Unfortunately, we forget the negative practice of the past years, including the early 90s. They promised whatever they hit. All. If only to enlist the support of voters. The result is that we still cannot get rid of some questions. If you promise the impossible, what it means, it creates expectations that are not destined to come true. Deceive people. And sow distrust in the entire political system of the country. To rock it from the inside is what it means. Be honest with people. And the citizens of Russia will be able to make their choice consciously, including without helpful and often dangerous prompts from the outside that carry discord in society. “

The so-called well-wishers from the West often try to teach Russia about democracy, forgetting that, in fact, while they themselves ruled monarchies, we already had both the Novgorod veche and the Zemsky Councils.

– When they say that the first parliament was in some European country, it is believed that this is Britain, in fact it is not. It all began with Ancient Rus, it all began with those forms that were used precisely as a form of popular will. As for, say, the British parliament, in general, it was more a representation of the nobility, the rich, who thus tried to balance the power of the king. Therefore, our Russian democracy is closer to the people. She is closer to the people. And therefore, when we get together like this, we are all different, representing different political parties, ideologies, but our task is the same: to serve our country and do everything to improve the well-being of people, – says Viacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

The electoral system in the country has changed dramatically in recent years. To make your choice where it is convenient, you no longer need to take absentee ballots. It is enough to sign up through a single portal of public services. And 13 million citizens have already taken advantage of this. Polling stations are now under the sight of CCTV cameras. The number of complexes for processing bulletins has increased by 2.5 times. And the introduction of QR-coding protocols has significantly accelerated the counting of votes.

– You wanted to talk about your work over the past five years, right? – Vladimir Putin addressed.

“We have created such a transparent system that even if someone had a secret desire to improve the result for himself, it immediately becomes obvious, it’s even difficult to name a country where there would be such a powerful observing community. We had 255 thousand observers at the last elections, that is, at least 3-4 people at the polling station. The system of multi-stage control over that which ensures the reliability of the calculation of the election results, – answered Ella Pamfilova, the chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.

The challenge for the future is to implement a remote voting system over the Internet. In a pandemic, this is important. As an experiment, in a number of regions it will be possible to cast a vote without entering the polling station in the fall. Residents of Moscow and the Nizhny Novgorod region already have experience. They could vote remotely last year, when the amendments to the Constitution were adopted. It depends on the situation with the coronavirus exactly how many days, one or more, the residents of the country will have to make a choice.