The Program of the People's Alliance Party

PROGRAM OF THE PEOPLE'S ALLIANCE PARTY

We, the citizens of the Russian Federation, have united in the People's Alliance party in order to change life in our country together. We propose a path of transformation that will make Russia a modern, developed country, comfortable for living and working. A country where our children will want to live.

The current archaic, corrupt state, unaccountable to its citizens, has long ceased to match the level of development of Russian society. Our country deserves a modern state that places the welfare and rights of its citizens above abstract “state” interests.

A personalized decision-making process closed off from society (“manual control”) must give way to competent public administration based on the rule of law.

Backroom selection of successors and stage-managed “elections” must become a thing of the past. Russian citizens are fully capable of deciding for themselves whom to entrust with the country’s key political offices.

Nepotism, recruitment based on loyalty, the low level of training among civil servants, and the existence of an entire stratum of people placed above the law are all signs of an archaic, underdeveloped state. In a modern society, people become politicians and bureaucrats through good education, professional merit, and personal integrity.

A genuine reform of public administration is needed, one that will result both in a radical reduction in the number of officials at all levels of government and in a lower bureaucratic burden on the economy and the public sector. We will significantly reduce the number of levers in officials’ hands—those potentially corruption-prone areas where the outcome and speed of decision-making depend solely on the official. As a result, the official will be transformed from a ruler into a public servant.

We also support banning from public office those responsible for political repression, the return of censorship, election fraud, and similar abuses. The range of such offices and persons will be determined by a parliament elected in free democratic elections, on the basis of broad public discussion.

We regard Russia as part of European civilization, where increasing importance is attached to freedom, self-respect, and personal responsibility, and where state interference in the various spheres of human relations—whether in the economy, culture, or family life—is becoming less and less necessary. As we move along

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this path, the Russian state will become an arbiter ensuring that the “rules of the game” are observed, rather than a participant in social relations. In turn, modern institutions and mechanisms for society’s oversight of the state will be created and improved, and the state’s ultimate role will be to serve the interests of society.

We will move toward overcoming the fragmentation of Russian society. Reducing excessive wealth inequality will be one of the goals of the government’s economic policy. Resolving acute contradictions between different social groups will proceed through public discussion and the search for mutual compromise. Our goal is to ease social tensions and move toward social peace based on the principles of justice and equality before the law for all Russian citizens.

The lever for carrying out the necessary changes will be the mobilization of the vast reserve of human capital that is currently going unused. Removing administrative barriers will give individuals the freedom for self-realization. The state will encourage its citizens to fulfill their creative and entrepreneurial potential. The political system will foster the development of self-government skills by redistributing power and responsibility, including responsibility for the use of budget funds, to the local level.

Escalating and unresolved social problems, ineffective manual control of the economy, and pervasive corruption are driving Russia’s state system toward collapse. Therefore, we will make rapid changes in those areas where the irresponsibility and helplessness of the authorities generate the greatest social tension.

Among them, the most important is political reform, which will restore legitimacy to the authorities and make them accountable to citizens. The foremost task of political reform will be a genuine fight against corruption, which has infected all branches of government and has often become an integral part of economic relations.

Reform of the law enforcement system is necessary. The police must regain the trust of citizens. Street policing will be placed under municipal control. Investigative bodies will become independent from the police and other security agencies. The courts will become a fully fledged branch of government, gaining impartiality and independence. The penal system will become more humane, shifting from punishment to the rehabilitation of offenders.

A clear migration policy, including the introduction of visa requirements for all countries that are major sources of migration to Russia, quotas on the number of migrants from those countries, and preferential treatment in the allocation of government contracts for companies that do not employ foreign labor, will reduce the number of labor migrants and improve the quality of the workforce being recruited.

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The state will drastically reduce its role in the country’s economy, lifting administrative pressure on business, which will lead to a revival of entrepreneurial activity.

The pension system will continue its transition to a funded model. At the same time, citizens’ pension savings will be reliably protected from possible state encroachment. The problem of the “double burden” during the transition period will be resolved by transferring state-owned shareholdings into a special pension fund.

We will ensure that Russians have access to high-quality and affordable medical care. The healthcare system will become more efficient. We will develop partnerships among medical institutions of different forms of ownership for the benefit of patients.

The goal of general education reform will be an accessible, modern education system. Russians will receive high-quality higher education. This will be supported by the development of a system of research universities, where cutting-edge science will advance alongside teaching. Granting the scientific community genuine self-governance will revitalize academic life in Russia. The reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) will be repealed.

The state will stop owning media outlets and influencing the editorial policy of non-state media. Censorship will be prosecuted by law. The broadcast media market will be demonopolized. The internet will be free.

We will eliminate inequality among regions in the distribution of budget funds, including the special status of the North Caucasus. The development of Russia’s regions will be driven by transferring a significant share of powers to regional and municipal authorities, including authority over budget spending. This will also be supported by the development of modern transport infrastructure in Russia to European standards.

Russia’s main partners in foreign policy will be the developed countries. Russia will stop supporting notorious regimes and will contribute to greater global security while acting as an independent player.

The military will become professional. Conscription will be abolished.

Political Reform

At present, political life in Russia is characterized by the executive branch’s monopoly on drafting and making decisions concerning both

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political life itself and the country’s development agenda. There is a severe imbalance among the branches of government, as a result of which the legislative and judicial branches have become appendages of the executive, meekly carrying out its will.

Russia needs a full-scale political reform that will restore legitimacy, public accountability, and the people’s trust to all branches of government.

To achieve this, we will propose amendments to the Constitution that reduce the president’s powers and transfer more authority to parliament. We will propose shortening the presidential term to four years and prohibiting any one person from holding this office for more than two terms, regardless of whether they are consecutive. In addition, we will launch a broad public discussion on whether Russia should transition to a parliamentary republic, in which the head of the executive branch would be a prime minister elected by parliament.

We will eliminate artificial barriers in political life: lower the minimum threshold for parties to enter the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament) and regional legislative assemblies to 1–3%, simplify the party registration procedure by turning it into a notification-based process, and restore the possibility of forming electoral blocs. We will ensure equal conditions for parties’ participation in elections. Election commissions at all levels will become independent of the executive branch and will be formed by political parties. Election monitoring will be substantially liberalized, giving any citizen the opportunity to oversee the electoral process.

All registration filters for elections of regional heads and local self-government leaders will be abolished, and members of the Federation Council (Russia’s upper house of parliament) from the regions will be elected by direct vote.

We will systematically introduce the principles of direct democracy into Russia’s political life—that is, the adoption of an ever wider range of decisions on the basis of citizens’ direct expression of will. In this regard, we see e-democracy as an important and promising decision-making mechanism. The widespread introduction of e-democracy technologies will help bridge the gap between the authorities and society, improve feedback, and enhance the quality of governance, especially at the local and regional levels. The People’s Alliance party will support the development of e-democracy not only in theory but in practice as well, by integrating its tools into the everyday life of the party and its regional branches.

A Real Fight Against Corruption

A real fight against political and economic corruption is our main structural reform, and it will be the key prerequisite for launching all other reforms. The main condition for its success—political will—we have.

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We will establish equal rules for everyone: there will be no untouchables at any level of government, and punishment for corruption will become inevitable. The eradication of corruption will be aided by the return of political competition, the restored freedom of the mass media, the independent work and state support of NGOs, the restoration of judicial independence, and the decentralization of power. Eliminating excessive regulation and gradually reducing the state’s role in the economy will also lower the level of corruption.

We will create an independent anti-corruption agency. The UN Convention against Corruption will also be fully ratified, including the articles on combating the illicit enrichment of officials, and Russian legislation will be brought into line with it. Civil servants of any rank and in any branch of government whose spending (and the spending of their immediate relatives) exceeds their verified income, and who cannot publicly account for the source of that income, will be automatically dismissed and barred from holding public office, regardless of whether their illicit enrichment is proven in court.

Law Enforcement Reform

Reform of the law enforcement system will be one of our main priorities. Its specific details will be the result of a professional public discussion. However, we can already outline the general goals, objectives, and possible mechanisms of these reforms.

A Police Force People Trust

The Russian police will be transformed from a closed, bloated, over-bureaucratized structure into a professional, decentralized service with a significantly reduced staff.

Under current conditions, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has neither the will nor the capacity for self-reform. Therefore, an independent public oversight body, external to the police hierarchy and accountable to parliament, will be created. It will develop and monitor the implementation of specific measures to reform the Ministry of Internal Affairs, draft new laws, and oversee and track public reaction to police work.

The political assessment of the police and its leadership will depend primarily on how satisfied citizens across the country and in the regions are with its work. Public opinion surveys to determine the real level and structure of crime will be conducted by independent research companies commissioned by the public police oversight body.

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A structural reform will be carried out with two main goals: first, to reduce the administrative apparatus; second, to strip the police of excessive functions and powers, which will also lead to the elimination of positions that have become unnecessary. At the same time, reallocating resources and staff positions from managerial posts to operational units will help address shortages at the grassroots level. Another goal of the structural reform will be to break up the informal ties and mutual cover-up within departments that have prevented legal values from taking root in these institutions.

As part of the structural reform, the police will be stripped of functions that are not inherent to their role. In particular, their influence over economic relations will be sharply reduced. The police will cease to be a tool in competitive business struggles; to that end, some of their functions related to detecting economic crimes will be removed. After that, there will be a discussion about whether it is advisable to retain departments for combating economic crimes (OBEP) within the police structure at all. This will deprive so-called “power entrepreneurship” of its basis and reduce coercive pressure on business. The Extra-Departmental Guard units (a state security service for protecting property) will also be removed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Operational officers will be relieved of bureaucratic burdens, and the volume of statistical reporting will be reduced many times over. Instead of this ineffective control system, which is highly vulnerable to falsification, the service’s effectiveness will be assessed mainly by its outcomes—specifically, by the level of citizen satisfaction.

The system of departmental educational institutions will also be reformed. Only students pursuing strictly police-specific specialties will undergo the full course of study. Institutes and faculties that duplicate civilian educational institutions will be closed or converted into police schools, where people with civilian professions needed by the police will receive additional training for service in law enforcement.

A municipal police force will be created. These will be public-order bodies responsible for preventing offenses and maintaining public order. They will be funded largely from local budgets and will be accountable to citizens through local municipalities. At the same time, responsibility for combating crime and investigating criminal offenses will remain with the federal police.

Municipalities will gain greater freedom of choice in how local police operate. For example, by local decision they may be created by transforming and reassigning the current district police officer units and patrol service units, or the Extra-Departmental Guard units. In addition, municipalities will be able to engage private security companies to maintain public order at the municipal level through competitive tenders and government contracts.

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Fair and Independent Courts

The continuation of judicial reform will result in the judiciary achieving genuine independence from the executive branch. The courts will truly become a third branch of government. Judges will be freed from bureaucratic burdens, as well as from external pressure exerted both by the judicial hierarchy and by the security services and executive authorities. At the same time, greater transparency in the work of the courts and broad participation by civil society will encourage judges to make balanced, deliberate decisions. Taken together, this will make it possible to eliminate the existing prosecutorial bias in court rulings and strengthen public trust in the objectivity of judicial decisions, which is the foundation for preserving civil peace.

The independence of the judicial system as a whole will be achieved, first, by transferring personnel decisions on judicial appointments from the president (and in practice, from officials in the presidential administration) to bodies of the judicial community. Justices of the peace will be elected directly by citizens at the local level. Second, it will be achieved through financial independence. The judicial system will gain the ability to manage its allocated budget funds independently through a judicial department—a single support body serving all branches of the judiciary.

The independence of judges’ decisions from the judicial hierarchy will be ensured either by completely abolishing the institution of court chairpersons or by radically reducing their influence. All administrative functions currently performed by court chairpersons will be transferred to judicial departments: the technical organization of court operations will be handled by a court administrator who is not a judge, and the work of the judicial qualifications board will become public and transparent. If the institution of court chairpersons is retained, they will be elected by the judges of the respective court themselves; in addition, during a transitional period, court chairpersons may be barred from participating in judicial self-governance bodies—judges’ councils and qualifications boards.

A professional and public discussion will be held on measures capable of ensuring judges’ independence from the prosecutor’s office. For example, during a transitional period, a ban may be introduced on appointing judges from among former law enforcement personnel. Current judges who previously served in the internal affairs bodies and took part in criminal proceedings on the side of the prosecution may be barred for several years from hearing criminal cases.

State prosecutors will be stripped of the right to appeal a court verdict to a higher instance; that right will remain only with the injured party and the defendant.

Judges will be relieved of excessive bureaucratic and administrative burdens, freeing up their time and attention for thoughtful, independent decision-making.

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This can be achieved by relieving judges of excessive duties, such as the mandatory oral reading of the entire verdict. In addition, it would make sense to require a judge to prepare the reasoned part of a decision only if one of the parties requests it. The number of cases handled by a single judge will decrease dramatically. This will be achieved through the broad introduction of alternative pretrial dispute-resolution mechanisms, which will reduce the number of cases that reach the courts. The genuine abolition of the quota-driven performance system in law enforcement agencies will also reduce the number of cases.

At the same time, the work of the judicial system will become open to oversight by civil society. The participation of civil society representatives in the administration of justice will also be significantly expanded; in particular, the list of criminal charges to be decided by jury trials will once again be broadened. The assessment of the judicial system and its senior officials will depend on the level of public trust it enjoys. To restore that trust, the judicial system will have to purge itself of judges who have compromised it through unjust rulings.

An important step toward restoring trust in the courts will be the decentralization of the judicial system through the further specialization of its branches (in particular, the merger of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court will be reversed), which will lead to higher-quality judicial work.

The criminal justice system will be made more humane. The fundamental principle of administering justice will be a restorative approach to damaged social relations, providing for compensation for harm done in place of punitive measures.

From Punishment Enforcement to Rehabilitation

Russia’s penitentiary system will not merely, or even primarily, enforce punishment; it will become a system of rehabilitation.

Instead of becoming a place of rehabilitation, Russia’s penal system has turned into a factory for producing criminals. In Russian prisons and penal colonies, hardened offenders who knowingly committed serious crimes are housed together with first-time offenders—people who are more victims of circumstance than individuals acting out of deliberate criminal intent—as well as with citizens wrongfully convicted. As a result, people leave prison at the end of their sentences with a fully formed criminal mindset.

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Reform of the penitentiary system will clearly separate the first two categories of offenders: they will be housed separately, and different methods will be used in working with them.

The goal in working with citizens who have chosen crime as their primary path in life will be to protect society from criminal influence. Under conditions of strict isolation, the main methods used will be psychological and educational techniques, occupational therapy, and other established approaches aimed at curing this group of citizens of criminal dependency. After release, they will be subject to a strict system of supervisory measures designed both to protect the public from crime and to suppress the criminal tendencies of those who have served their sentences.

For convicted persons who committed non-serious offenses for the first time, or who became victims of social circumstances, a set of measures will be developed and implemented to eliminate the causes that led to their criminal acts. Priority here will be given to modern educational programs, as well as training and retraining programs for contemporary professions. In working with this category of convicts, their family and close social circle play a particularly important role, and this will be used to the fullest in their rehabilitation.

It is obvious that such an approach to carrying out sentences and rehabilitating convicted citizens requires abandoning the force-based model: at present, employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) are members of the internal service rather than civilian public servants. The system will become civilian in nature, and its foundation will consist of educators, psychologists, and medical professionals.

By its very nature, the penal service requires constant oversight from civil society. At present, specially selected and appointed public activists and human rights advocates play a seriously negative role in the system, often provoking conflicts and fostering corruption. We will completely abandon the system of authorized and appointed public representatives. Any citizen of Russia will have the right to know what is happening in the institutions of the system and to personally verify that human rights are being respected throughout the institutions responsible for carrying out sentences and rehabilitating offenders.

Economic Policy

The “People’s Alliance” will adhere to a centrist position in economic policy, avoiding both the absolutization of market freedom, which leads to excessive economic and social inequality, and universal egalitarian leveling, which hinders economic and social progress.

At the same time, we consider the course that has taken shape in recent years toward restricting freedom and expanding state control over the economy to be a dead end and ineffective—by suffocating market relations, it

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does not increase the social benefits and protections of ordinary citizens, instead contributing to the enrichment of a select few. We will reverse this process: liberalize the economy and restore social protections to the extent Russia can afford without harming economic growth and competitiveness.

This will be achieved by eliminating the factors holding back the development of the Russian economy. We will dismantle the multi-layered system of corruption, remove excessive regulation, strengthen the protection of property rights, create conditions for bringing the economy out of the shadow sector and offshore jurisdictions, and promote the development of modern infrastructure. The gradual removal of these barriers to economic growth will unlock substantial reserves that will lead to a significant rise in living standards for the overwhelming majority of Russians, make social policy more effective, and at the same time unleash the initiative of the entrepreneurial and creative classes.

We will abandon the harmful practice of state financial support and tax breaks for selected so-called priority industries, projects, or types of activity. This support does not solve real problems; it usually benefits not so much workers as business owners, who are often affiliated with government officials.

Instead, state support for specific industries will take the form of encouraging career retraining for people in professions that are no longer in demand, and subsidizing their retraining in specialties that are more needed in the modern economy. The state will support the development of skills that will enable businesses in these industries to become competitive. This will make it easier to reshape the structure of the economy and improve its efficiency.

Regulation and the Role of the State in the Economy

Excessive regulation and the large role of the state in the economy are a major drag on economic growth and on improving the living standards of Russia’s citizens.

We will ensure the rapid repeal of the most odious and senseless economic rules and bureaucratic procedures involved in providing public services to citizens, through a dedicated government body. The current procedures for “regulatory impact assessment” and discussions within the framework of the “Open Government” initiative do not produce the desired results. We will not only ensure broader discussion of new regulatory rules, but also initiate a review of existing ones. In many sectors, there will be a gradual transition to European regulatory norms, and certification standards adopted in the European Union will be introduced. The success of this body will be measured by how businesses and citizens assess the regulatory environment.

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At present, the share of state and municipal ownership in enterprises, real estate, and land is excessive and managed inefficiently. We will gradually reduce this share: every asset that remains in state ownership will require a public justification. At the same time, we will bring order to the management of state property.

One of the mechanisms will be to transfer state shareholdings in major companies to the management of a special pension fund, which will work to increase their value, eliminate corruption and abuse, and ensure their gradual privatization. All cash income from dividends paid by state-owned companies and from the privatization of their shareholdings will go toward covering the pension system’s deficit. The fund’s management and investment decisions will be made transparently. Its supervisory board will include representatives of the investment community and civil society.

Infrastructure

One of the state's most important tasks is to create and develop modern infrastructure. Thanks to strong macroeconomic indicators, Russia can, in the foreseeable future, afford to bring its road network, airports, other transport infrastructure, and housing and public utilities services up to European standards. This will be achieved by eliminating corruption, drawing on international experience, holding open tenders, including with the participation of foreign companies, and expanding the practice of public-private partnerships.

Tax Policy

We will take tax and administrative measures to reduce the offshorization of the Russian economy and shrink its shadow sector. At the same time, companies will be given broader opportunities to treat justified expenses as costs, and tax reporting will be simplified.

Extreme wealth inequality poses a danger to Russian society. At the same time, a formally proportional tax system is in fact regressive: the wealthier people are, the smaller the share of their income they pay in taxes. This is because a significant portion of economic activity takes place in the shadow economy, using cash-out schemes and offshore arrangements.

We will limit opportunities for tax avoidance and introduce a fair tax on real estate and other property in order to reduce this regressivity. Standard deductions

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for personal income tax will be increased to the level of the subsistence minimum. The social tax will become proportional, and its rate will be reduced to 25–30%.

At the same time, we do not support the idea of introducing a progressive income tax rate, because this would not restore social justice but would instead shift the full weight of the tax burden onto the middle class, the overwhelming majority of whose income consists of wages subject to income tax.

Social Policy

Pension System

The level of pension provision in Russia will be brought up to that of developed countries: the ratio of the average pension to the average wage nationwide will be raised to 40–45%.

In the context of a demographic crisis, only a funded pension model can provide Russia's citizens with a stable, financially sustainable pension system. The transition to a funded system will continue. At the same time, we guarantee that this system will not produce poor pensioners: a minimum social pension will ensure them a secure old age.

At the same time, pension savings already accumulated by citizens, including those managed by state funds, will remain the unconditional property of citizens and may not be confiscated under any pretext.

Because the pension system is in the process of transitioning from payments out of the current budget to a funded system, working citizens today bear the so-called “double burden”: they finance payments to current pensioners while also saving for their own retirement. We will address this problem comprehensively.

A special pension fund will be created, into which state-owned stakes in major companies will be transferred. Dividends and proceeds from the privatization of these stakes will be used to cover the pension system's deficit. Many of today's pensioners, in one way or another, took part in the development of these state companies when they were still Soviet enterprises and organizations. Quite apart from anything else, it would also be fair for these very assets to provide this generation with stable pension support.

The fund will also grow more quickly thanks to higher returns on pension-system investments through an expanded range of investment instruments.

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As quality of life and life expectancy increase, Russia will inevitably face the issue of raising the retirement age. If this issue is postponed, such an increase will one day become abrupt and painful. To soften the negative consequences of raising the retirement age, we will plan this process in advance, making it smooth and gradual while minimizing social costs. At the same time, the increase in the threshold will be differentiated by age, so that it will affect primarily those who are only just beginning their working lives.

Social Protection

Social protection will be targeted. To achieve this, we consider it necessary to introduce a special comprehensive assessment that will help determine people's real need for social assistance.

Making benefits more targeted will also make it possible to increase assistance for children from poor families. A key form of social support in cases of extreme poverty will be the implementation of a minimum guaranteed income program to provide the funds necessary for subsistence, along with the introduction of food vouchers for people living in extreme poverty.

We will create the most favorable possible conditions for the development of social entrepreneurship in support of low-income citizens and people with disabilities, provide state support to these non-profit organizations, and ensure strict public and government oversight of the social protection system for vulnerable groups.

Healthcare

Russian healthcare must become a human-centered system, a crucial mechanism for preserving and enhancing human capital. We will focus our efforts on ensuring that citizens have the fullest possible access to free, high-quality, universally available medical care.

At the same time, however, the problem of fair and rational resource allocation inevitably arises if those resources are to be used as effectively as possible. Its solution will emerge from broad discussion within the professional community.

The key to an effective healthcare system will be the development of modern forms of socially responsible partnership between public healthcare institutions and private business in order to build a system for delivering high-quality medical care. Competition for state insurance funding among medical organizations of various forms

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of ownership will become a reality. We will promote the development of non-state medical institutions as an alternative to publicly funded healthcare.

The main criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of the pharmaceutical supply system will be its uninterrupted operation, including with regard to rare and pain-relief medicines. We will remove administrative barriers in the system for supplying medicines and medical devices and begin the process of recognizing European standards, eliminating the need for additional certification of medical products in Russia.

The authority to oversee the quality of medical care, as well as the certification and licensing of medical practice, will be granted to professional self-regulating medical associations. Excessive administrative barriers to obtaining the right to engage in medical and pharmaceutical practice will be eliminated.

We will implement effective mechanisms to protect patients' rights, including pre-trial remedies. The rights of medical workers will also be protected through the introduction of professional liability insurance, which will make it possible to compensate patients for material and moral harm resulting from substandard medical care.

We will ensure full transparency and openness in the healthcare system for public oversight. Strict public scrutiny will be established over the soundness of decisions regarding the use of healthcare resources, the monitoring of patient satisfaction with medical care, the prompt review of patient complaints, and action taken on that basis. The role of professional medical associations in governing the system that protects citizens’ health will be strengthened. A broad range of civil society organizations will be involved in decision-making on the strategic directions of Russian healthcare development.

General Education

We proceed from the premise that education is a strategically important institution around which an environment conducive to active and productive living is organized.

The changes we will introduce to the education system will be based on the fact that the traditional model of education, built on the transmission of accumulated experience, has outlived itself. In a rapidly changing world, what matters is not so much a “store of knowledge” as the ability to learn, adapt, and discover new things. This does not mean that we will completely abandon the current traditional model—its positive features will be

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preserved, alongside the introduction of new priorities and approaches and the gradual elimination of outdated elements.

Education reform will encourage the full diversity of educational formats: lyceums and gymnasiums (specialized secondary schools), homeschooling, external study, and others, and will establish several core educational pathways. Educational programs and standards will be revised in line with the demands of the times and students’ psychological and physical capacities, while teachers will be given broad discretion to choose the teaching methods and textbooks they consider most appropriate.

The system for training and retraining teachers will be reformed, and teachers will receive all the skills needed to work in a modern school where children of many different backgrounds and needs learn together. We will create conditions for integrating children with disabilities into the general educational environment (inclusive education). Special education schools and schools for children with various developmental needs will remain part of the general education system and will not be transferred to the Ministry of Social Protection. A multicultural environment will become the norm in the modern school. The state will provide schools with financial, organizational, and methodological support as they transition to a new level of social and educational standards.

We will prepare for and implement a transition to a 12-year model of schooling (after the abolition of conscription-based military service), with full academic specialization in the upper grades. The nature and content of education at each stage will be reviewed on the basis of recommendations from the professional community. While preserving the basic principles of the Unified State Exam, we will ensure their proper implementation, reopen discussion on the format of testing materials, and improve students’ and parents’ understanding of the exam’s content, procedures, and the prospects it offers to test-takers.

We will make the teaching profession more financially attractive, ensuring an influx of promising new personnel while retaining the best experienced teachers. Teachers’ salaries will be determined on the basis of clear and understandable criteria, and opportunities to manipulate bonuses and incentive payments will be eliminated. At the same time, professional standards for teachers will be raised, and strict criteria for monitoring the quality of education will be developed through broad discussion involving all interested parties.

Bureaucratic pressure on schools and teachers will be radically reduced. Mass unscheduled inspections will be abolished, and oversight will be carried out on the basis of educational outcomes (in exceptional cases, the principle of an independent audit commissioned by education authorities will apply).

We will develop a flexible funding scale that takes into account the specific characteristics of individual schools. Successful schools will be rewarded, while struggling schools

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will be allocated funds to implement specific recovery programs. Special attention will be given to funding rural schools and small schools with low enrollment.

We will ensure that parents are able to monitor the quality of educational services provided. The rights and authority of parent committees will be expanded: they will become forums for dialogue between teachers and parents and will be able to take part in decisions important to school life.

The new school will be equipped with infrastructure that matches its goals and objectives: comfortable facilities suitable for teaching children with different physical abilities, the most up-to-date information and computer technology, a convenient cafeteria with quality meals, gymnasiums, and outdoor sports grounds.

The new system of primary and secondary vocational education will be geared as closely as possible to labor market needs, and educational institutions will be brought into closer partnership with employers seeking skilled personnel. Within 3–5 years, college curricula and technical resources will be brought into line with employers’ requirements. Employers will be able to shape workforce demand. Teachers’ qualifications will be upgraded in accordance with modern industry standards; advisory and methodological centers will be established, drawing on experienced educators to strengthen the professional competence of teaching staff at educational institutions; and administrators will undergo retraining under well-established international programs.

Higher Education and Science

Russia cannot develop without fundamental science, which is both a source of innovation for the economy and a vital institution for training qualified personnel and providing high-quality expert review of projects. Fundamental science has an enormous impact on the intellectual and psychological climate of society. In our view, the current reform of the Academy of Sciences is an attempt to eliminate scientific self-governance and place researchers under the authority of incompetent administrators appointed by the government. Ultimately, it could lead to a corporate-style takeover of Academy institutions. The principles of the Academy’s reform must be radically reconsidered.

We will work to preserve and develop the system of scientific and university self-governance. Key administrative and financial decisions will be made by elected scholars and boards of trustees. Terms in administrative positions at universities, institutes, research foundations, and expert councils will be limited. It is necessary to eliminate the material inequality that has permeated our higher education system: the earnings of professors

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and associate professors must be comparable to the earnings of university administrators and senior management.

Despite some growth in recent years, funding for science and education remains insufficient. We will secure a multiple increase in spending on science and higher education, bringing it up to levels typical of developed countries. The salaries of Russian researchers and university faculty will become sufficient for a decent and comfortable life. At the same time, requirements for the qualifications of researchers and преподавателей and for the quality of their work will be raised.

We support zero tolerance for corruption in higher education, above all bribery in exchange for course credits and exam passes, and the improper awarding of diplomas and academic degrees. Staff found guilty of such acts must be dismissed without exception and held accountable. Universities where corruption has become widespread will face tough sanctions, including funding cuts and reorganization. Academic degrees awarded improperly will be revoked.

A comprehensive set of measures is needed to improve the quality of higher education in Russia. Higher education must be in closer contact with the scientific and business communities. Direct ties between universities and business should be encouraged, along with the development of new specialized programs tailored to specific employer needs. We welcome the compilation of university rankings based on different indicators and the broad dissemination among prospective students of information on the comparative quality of education at different universities.

Global experience shows that truly high-quality higher education is possible only at universities engaged in cutting-edge research. We will develop a system of research universities with adequate funding and relatively low teaching-load requirements, allowing faculty members to pursue their own research. At the same time, leading scientists working in research institutes will be brought in to teach at universities. Research universities will undergo regular performance quality audits with the participation of international experts.

Scientific research will be funded on a competitive basis, drawing on international best practices and with minimal bureaucratic formalities. Grant applications will be evaluated on the substance of the research programs rather than on formal bureaucratic indicators. As a rule, this funding will be administered by autonomous scientific foundations such as the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Russian Foundation for the Humanities (RFH), among others. The system of fixed-term contracts should be expanded, especially for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, with funding provided through competitively allocated resources. The rules for purchasing scientific equipment and materials through grants must be simplified, and customs clearance for such purchases must be made cheaper and faster.

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Modern science knows no national borders. Research institutes and universities will be able to fund international travel for their staff and invite foreign colleagues to work in Russia. Foreign scientists will be systematically involved in the competitive review of research projects and in assessments of the state of science and education in Russia. We will work to attract members of the diaspora and young foreign researchers to work in Russia. Obtaining visas and work permits in Russia for scientists who are foreign nationals will be radically simplified.

Society

The rights and freedoms of Russia’s citizens are the highest priority. No appeal to traditional values can take precedence over a person’s freedom to express their views, live as they choose, practice any religion, or practice none.

All restrictions on freedom of speech, assembly, and the nonviolent expression of any political or religious beliefs will be lifted. The state will actively support citizens’ right of access to information, limiting access only to explicitly specified categories of information constituting state secrets and to information about citizens’ private lives.

Minorities, including religious, political, and sexual minorities, will enjoy the same protection as all other citizens.

The church will be separated from the state, and the state will give preference neither to any religion nor to atheistic views. Offending religious feelings will not be grounds for criminal prosecution.

Media and the Internet

State policy in the field of mass media will be aimed at helping citizens obtain objective and comprehensive information. Any attempts at censorship in the media and on the Internet will be consistently prosecuted under the law, as will the deliberate misleading of media representatives by public officials.

The state will radically reduce its involvement in the mass media, above all in television. The remaining state-owned media outlets must be placed under the control of independent public institutions. Public television will be funded not from the budget but through a special tax levied, for example, on the sale of television sets.

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Broadcasting will be subject to restrictions designed to prevent attempts to monopolize access to information: the same individual or company may hold a significant stake in no more than one terrestrial television channel and one radio station.

The internet will be free. The law allowing pretrial blocking of access to websites will be repealed. The internet sector will operate on the principles of self-regulation. Protecting children from information deemed undesirable by their parents will be implemented as a free optional service provided by internet service providers.

Regional Policy

Russia’s politics and economy are excessively centralized. Major Russian cities, above all Moscow, draw in human, financial, and other resources from across the country. On the one hand, this overloads the urban and social infrastructure of the cities that have become centers of attraction for resources; on the other, it leads to the impoverishment of the remaining regions.

To stop this process, we will direct resources toward the development and improvement of Russia’s provinces. To achieve this, a significant share of powers, responsibilities, and budget revenues will be transferred from the federal level to the regional and municipal levels. At the same time, we will ensure the fair distribution among the regions of tax revenues paid by major national taxpayers.

At the same time, we oppose any artificial administrative restrictions on mobility. Russian citizens will be able to live, work, and receive public services, including healthcare and education, anywhere in the country; residence registration will become notification-based and will be simplified.

The North Caucasus

One of the most pressing problems facing Russia is the restoration of a unified legal framework across the republics of the North Caucasus.

We believe it is an illusion to think that security in the regions of the North Caucasus can be ensured solely through a constant infusion of budget funds. The current imbalance in regional funding in favor of the North Caucasus republics will be eliminated.

We will seek efficient use of funds and unconditional compliance with the law in all regions of the North Caucasus.

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Foreign Policy

Russia will pursue an independent foreign policy based on mutually beneficial cooperation rather than confrontation. Our country will benefit from its unique geographic position alongside most of the principal players in global politics and economics: Europe, China, Japan, and the United States.

We are convinced that Russia’s strategic interests in the modern world largely coincide with those of the developed Western countries, particularly in reducing global tensions, countering international terrorism, and ensuring free trade. It is with them that Russia will develop equal partnerships and alliances. At the same time, Russia will cease supporting regimes built on lies, violence, and the suppression of democracy in their own countries.

For historical reasons, the countries of the post-Soviet space have closer cultural and linguistic ties. Russia should and will use this circumstance to promote Eurasian trade and economic integration on market principles, to the extent that it serves the mutual benefit of our countries. Russia will support the movement toward democracy and civil liberties in the countries of the former Soviet Union, while avoiding crude political or military interference in the affairs of neighboring states.

Migration Policy

The uncontrolled flow of labor migrants from abroad has a negative impact both on the low-skilled labor market and on society as a whole, which is unable to integrate migrants at the same pace as their numbers are increasing. In order to address the related problems and bring labor migration into the legal sphere, Russia must be able to control the inflow of foreign workers.

Therefore, the first—though not the only—measure in this area will be the introduction of a visa regime for the countries of Central Asia, from which the main flow of labor migrants comes. Quotas will be established for each country on the number of its citizens allowed to stay in Russia at any one time. The number of visa quotas for each country will be set annually on the basis of public discussion and monitoring of the social situation in the regions with the largest migrant populations.

We will ensure that hiring foreign workers is no more advantageous for employers than hiring Russians with the same qualifications. Obtaining a work permit for a foreign citizen will require the payment of insurance, after which that person will be entitled to social protection and services. To make corrupt collusion more difficult, payments to foreign workers will have to

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be made only by cashless means. Penalties for employers who hire foreign citizens without the proper permits will be tightened, while the process of obtaining such permits itself will become transparent and straightforward.

The state will encourage the hiring of Russian citizens. When awarding government contracts through competitive bidding, all else being equal, preference will be given to companies that do not use low-skilled foreign labor.

The state will support the integration of legal migrants into Russia’s social and cultural environment, above all through the study of the Russian language.

Diaspora and Repatriation

The vast diaspora of our compatriots who have moved abroad for permanent residence remains a largely untapped resource both for strengthening Russia’s influence on the international stage and for the country’s internal development. Building relations with them could become a bridge for expanding international cooperation in science and the economy.

Many of our former compatriots possess the knowledge and expertise needed for the country’s development. At the same time, interaction with them will be far easier and more natural than with foreign specialists because of a shared cultural code. We will create conditions for their successful professional, scientific, and economic activity in Russia, and for those who wish to return, for their repatriation.

Unfortunately, a significant share of emigrants view Russia as a hostile environment. We will seek to change this attitude by finding and building equal, honest, mutually beneficial ties. The goal of our cooperation with Russian diasporas will be to ensure that emigrants and their descendants are confident they can always count on support and special consideration from Russia, and conversely, that Russia and its initiatives will gain support among former compatriots abroad.

Armed Forces

In the modern world, developed countries generally staff their armed forces not through compulsory conscription but on a professional basis, which ensures greater combat effectiveness in the context of increasingly complex weapons systems and military tactics.

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We will carry out a rapid and unconditional transition to a professional army by increasing pay for enlisted personnel recruited for contract service. The additional costs will amount to only a small share of the planned rearmament spending and will not have a seriously negative impact on public finances, while the increase in professionalism will make it possible to reduce the size of the armed forces needed to ensure the country’s defense capability.

Pursuing a sensible foreign policy and strategic partnership, rather than confrontation with Western countries, will reduce military risks for Russia and, as a result, limit the growth of defense spending.