Press Release, 9.12.2020

Photo: Maxim Kruglov, leader of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma

Maxim Kruglov, leader of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, submitted 57 proposals prepared by Moscow municipal deputies to the second reading of the Moscow budget for 2021. According to the present legislation, Moscow municipal deputies do not have the ability to influence the formation of the city budget. However, Maxim Kruglov launched a platform – an aggregator of amendments to the Moscow city budget from municipal deputies of the city – so that Moscow municipal deputies could introduce their amendments to the Moscow budget through the Yabloko faction of the Moscow City Duma.

In total, municipal deputies sent 172 amendments to Kruglov, but only a third of their proposals after examination were included in the final list of proposals submitted by the Yabloko faction to the second reading of the budget by the Moscow City Duma.

According to available information, the Mayor’s Office intends to take into account only one of the amendments: allocation of 100 million roubles for the registration of apartment buildings of the Gagarinsky district in the cadastral register.

Moscow municipal deputies, in the amendments introduced by Kruglov, asked the Moscow City Duma to allocate funds for the following:

– construction and repairs of children’s and adult outpatients clinics in different districts of Moscow;

– creation of a system and implementation of environmental monitoring;

– construction of sports and recreation complexes;

– increase in subsidies to non-profit organisations in the physical culture and sports sector;

– arrangement of a skate park and a sports ground;

– maintenance of animals shelters;

– improvement of streets, courtyards and green areas in different districts;

– capital repairs of housing in some areas of the city;

– repairs of a kindergarten;

– reconstruction of a music school and a cultural centre;

– construction of a non-stationary pavilion in one of the Moscow parks;

– planting of a green hedge along one of the streets;

– renovation of apartments for World War II veterans;

– provision of food packages for the needy, as well as social support for victims of Stalin’s political reprisals and gifts to children from the community of large families;

– construction of tram traffic in one of the areas;

– maintenance of courtyards in one of the areas, where an experiment to minimize the use of deicing reagents is underway;

– repair of transit highways and water supply systems;

– replacement of the gray concrete fence around the building of the Moscow office of the Federal Bailiff Service in one of the districts;

– arrangement of pedestrian sidewalks at the exits from schools and kindergartens, as well as installation of interactive timetables at public transport stops;

– subsidies to the Almega and Lomonosovets children’s centres and the Kosmos sports centre;

– development of cycling infrastructure in some of the districts;

– purchase of buildings for a cultural centre in Zyuzino and a social centre in Gagarinsky;

– purchase of 45 elevators for houses not equipped with elevators in one of the districts;

– tap lights for road markings at pedestrian crossings in Zyuzino;

– compensation for the lost income of employees of the entertainment sector who did not receive any income due to coronavirus restrictions;

– lease of premises for meetings of municipal deputies of the Molzhaninovsky district with voters;

– holding local festive and socially significant events in the Lomonosov district;

– activities for the separate collection of garbage in the Arbat area.

In addition, municipal deputies proposed to save budget funds by reducing the height of houses being built in Zyuzino under the Moscow Mayor’s renovation programme, abolishing of the plans to build the northern backup of Kutuzovsky Prospekt, reconstruction of Arbat lanes and “improvement” of Bitsevsky Forest and Moskvoretsky Park.

Despite the position of the Moscow Mayor’s Office, the fate of the amendments will be decided not by officials, but by the deputies of the Moscow City Duma, Maxim Kruglov notes. It is expected that all the amendments made to the second reading of the city budget by the Moscow City Duma will be examined during three sessions.

If the amendments of the municipal deputies are not adopted, the Yabloko faction will try to implement them already in 2021 by all available parliamentary methods.

It should be noted that not only deputies, but also deputies associations have the right to make amendments. The Yabloko faction proposed to allocate more than 144 billion roubles from the Moscow budget to support businesses affected by the pandemic, and also made specific proposals to provide assistance to vulnerable categories of citizens. Other Yabloko deputies – Yevgeny Bunimovich, Sergei Mitrokhin and Daria Besedina – introduced their own amendments.