On April 11, the State Duma in plenary session adopted in three simultaneous readings a draft law on electronic subpoenas to the military registration and enlistment office of persons liable for military service and a ban on travel to foreigner as soon as the summons is sent, as well as restrictions on non-compliance. On April 14, it was signed by Vladimir Putin. The bill was presented to deputies by the head of the Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, who at the end of March said journalists that Russian law does not provide for the issuance of subpoenas through Gosuslugi. Journalist Ekaterina Vinokurova tells about which of the State Duma deputies opposed the bill, simply by not voting for it, and also about how they feel inside the walls of parliament.
party discipline
392 deputies voted for the bill at third reading, 1 abstained. Later it turned out that it was right-wing Russian Dmitry Kuznetsov, who said he pressed the wrong button by mistake.
A few deputies publicly state that they did not even have time to read the bill, suggest postponing the consideration of amendments, or at least discussing everything in detail. In response, they were met with crude requests not to sabotage the work and to vote immediately, which was done.
To say that the situation in which the deputies found themselves discredits parliament is to say nothing. Incidentally, one of the deputies present in the room (he gave his vote for the bill) sent me a screenshot, from which it emerged that the text of the initiative was not not even loaded into his terminal. He was outraged, however, as he said, “party discipline” is “higher” for him.
Archive photoPress Service of the State Duma of Russia
However, there are 450 deputies in the State Duma, not 392. If you look at the list of those who voted on this bill by name, mark those who refused to do so, and then remove from the resulting list those who have not voted since morning on the agenda item (then is simply not present at work), we receive a fairly small list of deputies. Among them were those who did not consciously participate in the adoption of this initiative.
First of all, these are United Russia members Nikolai Brykin and Igor Kastyukevich. However, these people’s career paths give no reason to accuse them of disloyalty or having their own opinion, so they might just be distracted by something at a fatal moment. Then – ex-mayor of Yakutsk Sardana Avksentyeva from the New People, Valery Gartung from Fair Russia, Yuri Napso from the Liberal Democratic Party, non-partisan MP Oksana Dmitrieva, as well as a number of deputies from the Communist Party.
The latter can be listed by name and surname: Nikolai Arefiev, Vladimir Blotsky, Anzhelika Glazkova, Alexei Kornienko, Alexei Kurinny, Vyacheslav Markhaev, Mikhail Matveev, Oleg Mikhailov, Nina Ostanina, Artem Prokofiev, Oleg Smolin and Sergei Shargunov.
Not by chance
Silent protest with refusal to vote in principle, when the deputy is under pressure and is unlikely to speak out against it, is not new. This, for example, was even used by United Russia when they were forced to pass a law banning American adoption of Russian orphans.
Now the State Duma is even more subservient, and the stakes for disobeying the leadership are even higher, right down to threats of criminal prosecution and arrest.
However, in personal correspondence, several deputies, seeing that I had made a count of “refuseniks” by name, wrote that they acted consciously and did not want to support “repressive laws”.
Messages came to me from different people who hardly consulted each other, since they belong to different factions. At the same time, they practically copied each other.
” I am aware. And N too.
“L asks to convey that it is not a coincidence, I am also on purpose”
“I left the room. Not by chance.”
“Look at my vote on all the oppressive laws. I do not support it.”
At the end of the dialogue, the interlocutors typically ask to quote this correspondence anonymously. Indeed, it is not worth listing by name those who have pointed out that they have made a personal choice, because this can already put people in a really dangerous situation.
In Russian public policy, not a word, but at least silence becomes a real gesture. Not an act, but an inaction.
“You know my… position,” the deputy tells you. And we understand that this pause is put in place of the word “anti-war”, just so as not to say it aloud once again – especially since the conversation can be recorded and published.
If your interviewer says they “have a position” without that awkward pause, you’ll almost certainly hear later that they support CBO. But if you hear “let’s not call”, “you yourself understand”, “well, you know that I have a certain … sight”, you do not need to continue the conversation, because its suite can end with an article on discrediting the Russian army and military operations. About what is considered “wrong”, such people do not speak aloud at all.
Four reasons
Even at the very beginning of the hostilities, not one or two journalists wondered how it was that none of the deputies of the State Duma took a ticket for the next flight and applied for political asylum in Europe, making a clear statement.
I have questioned several deputies I know on this subject, who are skeptical about the Russian government and especially about the military operation. Let us immediately make a reservation: there are only a few such deputies (as well as sincere and active supporters of hostilities). Most simply prefer not to have their own opinion or discuss it even with well-known journalists. Which, in principle, can be considered quite a wise decision.
Andrey Rubtsov/TASS
Several reasons were given. The first is “we ourselves didn’t understand what was going on, we thought it would only bring the peacekeepers back to the demarcation line”. I note that it is this same thesis that is most often used, among others, by representatives of the executive when they talk about how they survived the first two weeks after February 24, 2022.
The second reason is “when they realized what had happened, it was too late”. That is, the deputies of the State Duma have already found themselves under sanctions, and they literally have nowhere to go.
The third reason is patriotic: “I want to stay with my voters, I have project obligations, I will be with the country until the end.
Finally, the fourth reason is already domestic. They are most often referred to as poor deputies, although not all readers will believe that such people exist. Many realized that they could not get their families out quickly. At the same time, people of their level will certainly be avenged for “treason”.
Russian elites, including public politicians, are the same flesh and blood people as all of us. The only difference that can distinguish the Russian elite of 2023 from the average person is the degree of fear, coupled with the inability to express it publicly.
If an ordinary person can sometimes take his soul out of it, at least by liking someone’s skeptical post, writing a comment (even at the risk of falling foul of an administrative article about discrediting the military), a deputy of the State Duma can only be silent sometimes.
Initiative is punishable
It should be noted that the degree of fear in the ranks of loyalist deputies is no less than that of quiet borderers. They are afraid to answer even questions that have nothing to do with the military operation, mobilization or other sensitive topics.
“I sit quieter than the water, lower than the grass, so as not to make useless movements,” the deputy, known for his loyal position, wrote to me. He answers the completely innocent question of whether any of his profile topics have been discussed with his own faction.
“You know that the initiative is punishable, I will not ask this question even in my committee”, writes another deputy in response to a question about culture.
Members can only be aware of their personal humiliation. In fact, they are not even treated like subordinates in big corporations in the style of “I’m the boss, you’re a fool”, but like overseers of slaves on the plantations in old Soviet films.
Some of these people have invested a lot of money in their election. It’s not one or two hundred thousand dollars – and this estimate is obviously an underestimate. Some were slow to realize their ambitions, gave their best in meetings with voters, followed party recommendations. And all to essentially become a dumb slave, even if he’s the most patriotic kind.
“Well, they hate the State Duma in your comments, don’t they?” one of the deputies without the right to vote wrote to me in the evening of the same day.
“To be honest, yeah, they all curse you in a crowd, and what happens in women’s chat rooms, I won’t even tell you,” I admitted.
“I’d like to give up everything and join the women’s chat rooms,” the MP laughs bitterly.
But they are too late.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors
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