Press Release, 27.12.2018

The Moscow City Duma rejected the bill of independent municipal deputies, expanding the powers of municipal councils. The authors of the bill proposed to give the Councils of Deputies of Moscow the right to approve the appointment and dismissal of heads of councils in municipal districts.

The meeting of the Moscow City Duma was held on 26 December. Only one deputy of the Moscow City Duma voted for the adoption of a legislative initiative to expand the powers of the Moscow local self-government bodies.

Independent municipal deputies – the authors of the bill – were not even invited to the Moscow City Duma meeting. Tatyana Portnova (United Russia), Chairperson of the Moscow City Duma Commission on Legislation, Regulations, Rules and Procedures, spoke on this issue at the Moscow City Duma meeting.

“Unfortunately, we can not speak about impartial and objective consideration by the Moscow City Dumas deputies of the issue of expanding the powers of local self-government bodies in Moscow,” the authors of the bill resent.

Andrei Morev, the main developer of the bill and head of the Municipal Council in Yakimanka District, criticised the decision of the Moscow City Duma. According to Morev, during the Moscow City Duma deputies distorted the bill at the meeting, “the proposed changes were presented as an encroachment on labour relations, which is not true.”

Andrei Morev considers the arguments about the incompatibility of the bill to the Constitution of the Russian Federation baseless, because, in accordance with Article 132 of the Constitution, local self-government bodies may be endowed with separate state powers. In addition, Moscow Law No 39 was adopted for implementation this article of the Constitution, and municipal deputies proposed to introduce changes into this law so that “to give the local self-government bodies real, not decorative powers”.

Andrei Morev said that the Council of Deputies of the Yakimanka Municipal District would continue its work aimed at expanding the extremely limited powers of Moscow local self-government bodies.

The bill on amending the Law No 39 “On vesting separate powers of the city of Moscow into local self-governments of municipal districts in Moscow” was developed by Andrei Morev, head of the Yakimanka municipal district, and his colleagues in the Council of Deputies in September of this year. The bill to expand the powers of municipal deputies was supported by eight Councils of Deputies, where there is a democratic majority, and many independent Moscow municipal deputies also supported it. The bill was also supported by the Yabloko party.

The bill proposes to give the Councils of Deputies the right to approve nominations when appointing heads of administrations and heads of regional state-financed institutions providing utility services, schools and out-patient hospitals, and also submit proposals on dismissals, if according to the results of annual reports, their activities are recognised unsatisfactory.

It should be noted that on 14 December, the Moscow City Duma reported that consideration of the legislative initiative is scheduled for the spring session. However, within a few days the decision was changed – the consideration of the issue was scheduled on late December. According to the authors of the bill, such a rush was caused by the start of the election campaign for the Moscow City Duma, as the reform of local self-government will be one of the key topics of the upcoming campaign.

Previously, Maxim Kruglov, political scientist and representative of the Yabloko party, spoke at the meeting in the Moscow City Duma about the development of proposals for a large-scale reform of governing in Moscow and preparation of a broad public campaign in support of the reform.