Well, unfortunately, it turned out exactly as expected:
The Moscow City Duma refused to register the initiative group of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who had proposed a bill to reform housing and utility services, RIA Novosti reports. Speaker of the city parliament Vladimir Platonov said the draft law contradicts federal legislation. Deputy Stepan Orlov also noted that some of the provisions proposed by Navalny are already contained in existing laws. A representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), Andrei Klychkov, for his part, promised to submit the bill under his own name. “We cannot speak of any democracy or any civic initiative if deputies do not allow this initiative to be carried out,” the communist said. Navalny’s bill proposed introducing mandatory audits whenever utility rates are increased. “The adoption of this draft law will lead to stronger protection of the rights and legitimate interests of Moscow residents when utility service rates are set and changed,” the explanatory note to the bill said. The Moscow City Duma concluded that such inspections can be conducted only on the basis of federal rules. Under the law “On Civic Legislative Initiative in the City of Moscow,” Muscovites may submit draft laws to the Moscow City Duma. To do so, they must create an initiative group and then apply to the Moscow City Duma, which decides whether or not to register it. If the initiative group is registered, it must then collect at least 50,000 signatures in support of the initiative. A refusal to register may be appealed in court. http://lenta.ru/news/2013/10/30/reject/
This outcome became obvious after yesterday’s review of our initiative by the relevant committees. Everything was terribly polite and civilized, but in substance it was the same blah-blah: we won’t allow it, we won’t permit it, we won’t approve it. Only Andrei Klychkov from the CPRF supported us, and his faction voted today in favor of registration.
The formal grounds for refusal: it contradicts federal legislation. These are the same grounds on which every initiative group has previously been rejected. To us, hearing this is laughable: we gutted the bill, removing everything that could possibly be interpreted as “contradicting federal law,” no matter how important or useful it was.
In the ten years this law has been in force, the Moscow City Duma has not let through a single civic legislative initiative. Not one. Apparently all citizens are fools, and only United Russia in the Moscow City Duma is smart.
Of course, we will go through in detail all the pseudo-legal nonsense the Moscow City Duma will officially send us, but that is rather pointless against the backdrop of yesterday’s spectacular performance by Moscow City Duma head Platonov on Echo of Moscow, where he said that no such law is needed at all because there is no problem with utility rates, and the wise Moscow authorities are actually lowering them:
Y. KOBALADZE: But let’s suppose Navalny is wrong. Suppose he is using this initiative for political purposes. But if there were no Navalny, if there were no such initiative, what exactly would you be doing? V. PLATONOV: We are not planning to. I already told you, I listed… S. SOROKINA: That everything seems to be fine. V. PLATONOV: No, I didn’t promise that either. I will list what has been done over these years. A citizen should pay for what he actually consumes. Further, we are involved, and the executive branch is actively involved as well, and it is achieving reductions in rates. Y. KOBALADZE: So far all we see is that they keep going up and up and up. V. PLATONOV: No, that is your misconception. I am ready to show you the figures year by year, and you will see that there is a slowdown in the growth of rates. S. SOROKINA: Really? It’s not exactly noticeable. V. PLATONOV: Let me show you the numbers, and I’ll post the statistics on Echo of Moscow. http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/sorokina/1185382-echo/
I can imagine how many listeners’ jaws dropped at that moment. Apparently there are two Moscows: one where all of us live, and another where the United Russia deputies live.
In the Moscow I live in, the rate is going up. If we plot a graph using open data, we will see this:
The red line shows electricity rate growth at the level of inflation. The blue line shows rate growth in the Moscow where the rest of us actually live.
We made two graphs specifically because, in that same broadcast, Platonov said they would not allow rates to rise faster than inflation.
So you can imagine the level of argumentation when the head of the Moscow City Duma and one of Moscow’s top United Russia figures goes on the city’s most popular radio station and tells hundreds of thousands of people that rates are going down. Even though all those people know perfectly well that the rates are going up—they’re the ones paying them.
Incidentally, it is very curious that the bill’s opponents are all parroting the same talking points: - it contradicts federal law - it’s populism and PR - it won’t solve the problems of housing and utility services - Navalny is misleading citizens by promising a “magic cure”
This is what happens when the authors of a civic initiative genuinely intend to bring order to some area of city life. But when that intention is replaced by the desire to stage yet another political PR stunt, it leads nowhere. What will be the fate of the civic initiative on housing and utility services? I can say with confidence that, as a deputy, I will never vote to register this initiative group. I do not want Muscovites to be misled during the signature-gathering process by promises of some kind of panacea that will supposedly bring improvements the very next day. That cannot be done on the basis of this initiative; it is unworkable and unlawful. I will vote “against,” and the final decision rests with the Moscow City Duma. Its session will take place on Wednesday. http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/platonov_v/1187312-echo/
I answered this question in detail yesterday, and now I simply want to remind everyone once again that it is very easy to determine your attitude toward the bill by answering one question:
- Do I want the figures used by monopolies to justify rate increases to be fully open and subject to an independent audit, with all the data from that audit (both the audit results and the underlying source data) published, and with decisions on raising rates made at an open meeting attended by antitrust officials, consumer protection groups, and Moscow City Duma deputies (including those from opposition factions)?
I personally do. Everyone at the Anti-Corruption Foundation does. And so do the 543 members of the initiative group. And so do the millions of Muscovites who are outraged after every new rate hike.
The only ones who do not want this are the monopolists themselves, for whom closed, non-transparent rates are a source of fantastic enrichment, and United Russia, which is bankrolled by those monopolists.
The obvious question is: why has United Russia taken such a maximally destructive position? If they have objections to the bill, that is exactly what the legislative process is for: revise it, improve it, take comments into account. First reading, second, third.
It became very clear to me yesterday at the Moscow City Duma session, and Platonov himself let it slip several times: “I do not want Muscovites to be misled during the signature-gathering process.”
They hate and fear the very idea of the “People’s Deputy.” The scale of the activity terrifies them.
An initiative group of about 500 people collects 65,000 signatures in a couple of weeks and, in the process, informs nearly a million voters about its work and the bill.
The Moscow City Duma wants to live in a quiet, cozy little world where they do nothing for years and, for that very inactivity, receive huge salaries, official country houses, and apartments. Platonov himself has been sitting there as a deputy for 20 years already. Oh yes, very nice.
Well then, if they are afraid of large-scale action, we will do our best to give them exactly that.
- We will continue the “People’s Deputy” campaign and submit other bills, drafted more cleverly and with this obstructionist attitude toward us in mind. Join us. - We will launch a major leaflet campaign in response to the refusal to register the group: every Muscovite will be able, in seconds, to print out and post in their apartment building entrance information showing that their deputy voted for housing and utility rates to rise without justification and remain hidden from public view. Elections are coming soon—let every voter know how their “representative” voted. - We will think up some other information campaigns as well.
Of course, we will appeal the refusal in court. There is little hope, but we will do it anyway.
The Moscow City Duma does not want to deal with housing and utility issues or other important problems. It simply does not want to, and that’s that. So we will deal with them, while they can stay in their cozy little world with the legislative initiatives that interest them. Until the next election.
Moscow City Duma Wants to Ban Chinese Sky Lanterns October 21, 11:57 Moscow City Duma deputies plan to restrict the launching of sky lanterns. Releasing these floating lanterns into the sky will now be allowed only in strictly designated areas. If Muscovites ignore the new law and continue launching lanterns wherever they please, the deputies plan to adopt amendments completely banning their use. http://www.mn.ru/moscow_authority/20131021/360526801.html