Lobbyists in the State Duma: Whose interests are represented by the deputies

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It is believed that State Duma deputies write a huge number of bills. This is not entirely true - they only sign them. And if you want to push through some kind of law, you better go to the government.

New rating

On December 17, 2019, Argumenty Nedeli presented its highly publicized 2019 Lobbying Performance Rating of Legislators. Armed with a database of State Duma bills, experts ranked the people's representatives (members of both chambers and their formal leadership) according to four parameters:

1. The number of bills considered by the State Duma, one of the authors of which is one or another deputy.
2. The number of bills rejected by the State Duma.
3. The number of adopted bills (approved by the State Duma, the Federation Council and the President).
4. Success rate is the third parameter divided by the first.

The attentive reader will point out that one more thing is missing between the second and third points - those adopted by the lower house, but rejected by the upper or the president. Alas, we have practically no such precedents in recent years - we live boringly, gentlemen. On March 13, 2019, however, thunder struck: the Federation Council refused to approve the State Duma's initiative to ban hostels in residential premises, but this surge of ambitions was quickly stopped by a slight shift in the date of entry into force of the bill.

Champion Guetta

Let's make a reservation that by the word "lobbyist" we mean both customers and performers - according to the dictionary definition, "one who belongs to the lobby or acts in the interests of the lobby."

According to the ratio of the above parameters, the lobbyists, that is, excuse me, the deputies were divided into ten categories: "Active", "Passive", "Fertile", "Fussy", "Lazy", "Single", "Empty", "Stopudovye", "One-time" and the coolest - "Out of competition".

Probably, Vyacheslav Fetisov and especially Leonid Slutsky are offended to be passive, but what is, that is, they are almost not involved in legislative activity (based on the following, maybe this is for the better?) But one of the pronounced leaders in terms of activity and effectiveness is 39-year-old Anton Guetta. This is his first Duma, but in it he does not at all look like a newcomer: 94 laws (a record!) With his signature were adopted, 13 were rejected, and another 185 are under consideration. If you believe that signature means authorship, then it turns out that an energetic deputy writes one law in less than three working days. And then we, recall, live by these laws.

Deputy Anton Guetta writes one law in less than three working days. Photo: onf.ru

Moreover, the process is accelerating: in November 2019 (the Rating included laws adopted before September 16), 25 bills were registered in the State Duma, under which Guetta's signature is. The Deputy Chairman of the Financial Markets Committee understands freedom of conscience, announcements of entertainment events, spelling of the languages of the indigenous peoples of the North, immunization of infectious diseases, and so on. The last of these projects is generally interesting: in its content there are 1214 characters, including spaces, and in the list of authors - 1016 characters (71 surnames with initials). If the project is adopted (and there is just an extension of one wording in three different places - private clinics, including those working under compulsory medical insurance, are included in the system of free vaccinations), then 71 people, according to the authors of the rating, will have an increase in the lobbying component.

Faction record holders

Andrei Baryshev is an amazing exception in the super-successful ranks of United Russia, he has only one adopted bill and 12 rejected. Baryshev shows a clear interest in real estate and loans, but he was lucky only with the law "On measures of influence (counteraction) on unfriendly actions of the United States of America and other foreign states", which was signed by another 379 people, so it was no longer necessary to vote …

In "Fair Russia" Anatoly Aksakov stands out: 54 adopted projects against 22 rejected - this is undoubted success for a representative of the outsider faction. For comparison, the leader of the faction, Sergei Mironov, had 15 adopted and 77 rejected, mainly openly populist bills. The other day, when the State Duma rejected two attempts to introduce a progressive income tax in Russia, the Spravooros project looked extremely poorly developed compared to a similar initiative by the Communists.

More precisely, of course, not the communists, but the completely capitalist faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. None of its members achieved positive efficiency, Yuri Sinelshchikov looks the most decent - 10 successes, 17 failures. Ivan Melnikov has more achievements -15, but also 25 failures. But they are real winners in comparison with Nikolai Arefiev and Dmitry Novikov, each of whom rejected all 30 initiatives.

Liberal democrats, who are also legendary sovereigns, previously delighted the people with increased activity, but now they seem to be tired. The only successful “lobbyist” Andrei Lugovoi has a ratio of wins and losses of only 10 to 3, the rest are in the red, among them Vitaly Pashin stands out with 3 to 27.

The only successful "lobbyist" from the Liberal Democratic Party, Andrei Lugovoi, has a win-loss ratio of only 10 to 3. Photo: Komsomolskaya Pravda / Globallookpress

What does lobbyism have to do with it?

During the analysis of the data, the feeling that something is wrong here does not leave. Here even the name is strange: why is it “rating 2019”, when in fact the activity for three years since the beginning of the work of the VII convocation is considered, that is, “2016–2019” is correct?

But most importantly, what does lobbyism have to do with it? It's hard to believe, but we must admit that even in our reality, the writing of laws is not always the result of the influence of some behind-the-scenes forces, that is, lobbying. Here we are talking about legislative activity, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, this activity consists in the permission to put your name in the list of authors.

It would be a different matter if it was a study of what sectors, what structures this or that deputy is associated with.

But stop, such studies do exist! Here you go, that's exactly what Transparency International did - with names, beneficiaries, even possible prices. Transparency International believes, for example, that Ayrat Khairullin, deputy chairman of the committee on agrarian issues, is submitting bills to protect large agricultural businesses, against small farmers - no wonder, because he is called the beneficiary of two agricultural holdings, Krasny Vostok Agro and Edelweiss Group. The head of the energy committee, Pavel Zavalny, is considered a person of Gazprom, and his colleague from the finance committee, Anatoly Aksakov, is considered a person of VEB and the banking community.

The head of the energy committee, Pavel Zavalny, is considered a man of Gazprom. Photo: Ministry of Energy Russia / Globallookpress

“Only 66 deputies out of 450 people could not find any belonging to any group of interests.” This is about lobbying.

Even a special project “Which deputies serve not only the people” has been created. Its information support is provided, for example, by Novaya Gazeta, which, in turn, also has certain lobbyists promoting their ideological views in Russia and pursuing political goals.

Who lobbies for ratings?

Unfortunately, both the rating and the investigation have nothing to do with reality. The feeling that the statistical calculations of "Arguments" are generally created and are being promoted in order to push unpleasant materials from "Transparency" into the information field by using the same words. That is why the word “lobbyism” is used where there is not a word about lobbying. In turn, the opposition, which does not have a presence in the State Duma, clearly overestimates the degree of influence of the deputies. Although, it would seem, having taken control of several local legislative assemblies, these people could understand that in the Russian reality, the deputies, fortunately, do not decide practically anything.

But it is not customary to talk about it out loud. And here you can see traces of another order for the "Rating of lobbying efficiency" - to convince the people that anti-popular laws are written and adopted by the State Duma deputies. Meanwhile, the constitutional majority in this convocation of the State Duma (as well as in the three previous ones) belongs to the United Russia party - an insignificant ideological nook of power corridors, somewhere near a bathroom. In our reality, a bill cannot be passed that has not been approved by this or that ministry; moreover, the basic laws of this kind are written in these ministries, and they go to the State Duma only for signature and voting. Therefore, real lobbyists work there, with officials, and not with deputies, in the overwhelming majority subject to party discipline, and not to personal conscience.

Laws are written in ministries, and they go down to the State Duma only for signature and voting. Photo: Komsomolskaya Pravda / Globallookpress

As a rule, initiates do not need to explain where this or that bill came from. When the journalists took up amendments to the 2015 law on mass media, which was important for them (Vadim Dengin, Vladimir Parakhin, Denis Voronenkov - each deputy from opposition parties), they quickly discovered that these were not “three men gathered,” as Dengin said (in the current convocation of three adopted bills, 17 rejected), and professional lawyers from by no means elected bodies worked. By the way, there are no complaints about the law - the reduction of foreign presence in the media is part of the information policy of almost all significant states.

But the people need to be convinced that, firstly, the deputies do not just eat their bread, and secondly, there are supposedly such evil corporations that bribe corrupt deputies and smuggle bad laws through them. And that is why the standard of living of ordinary people rises only in the reports of the specially reformed Rosstat, and the aggregate fortune of billionaires is growing by several percent per year.

Rotten tree

The main problem of Russian legislation is not lobbyists, but the fact that the system of our laws is rotten like an old tree in a damp lowland. You don't have to go far for an example: do you want to cut down a rotten tree in your area? And you think that Art. 261 of the Civil Code allows you to do this, and Art. 209 confirms this permission? Don't be naive. For there is also:

• Art. 8.25–8.28 of the Administrative Code - for all non-fruit trees are automatically considered forest trees.
• Criminal Code, Art. 260-261. Illegal felling, destruction or damage of forest plantations.
• Land Code, Art. 40, which says nothing about tree ownership.
• Forest Code, many articles.
• Federal Law "On Environmental Protection", many articles.

And these laws really are like a rod: what the court will like, a tree will fall in that direction, from refusal to recognize the composition of an administrative offense to imprisonment for a year or two.

The main problem of Russian legislation is not lobbyists, but the fact that the system of our laws is rotten. Photo: Andrey Lyubimov / AGN "Moscow"

And so literally in all areas of our life. The main lobbyists of endless lawmaking are those who need to control the tongue.

The “regulatory guillotine”, which was, of course, proposed by the government, not parliament, will only slightly reduce the number of standards, but in an amicable way, all Russian laws must be rewritten from scratch, clearly and unambiguously, in simple language. I would like to clarify with experts from Arguments of the Week and Transparency International where this initiative can be lobbied and how much it will cost.