In its report on the Russian Federation adopted today, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe noted with satisfaction the developments that have taken place since 2010: the principle of local self-government is now recognised both in the Constitution and in ordinary legislation, the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government are applied by the Constitutional Court in its case law, and a great variety of instruments of citizens’ participation in local public affairs is available. Other positive changes that have been introduced in response to the Congress recommendation of 2010 include the reduction of minimum numbers of members for registration of political parties, the registration of candidates supported by associations and groups, and the re-introduction of direct election of governors in most of the federal subjects of the Russian Federation.

However, co-rapporteurs Jakob Wienen (Netherlands, EPP/CCE), and Stewart Dickson (United Kingdom, ILDG) noted several cases of non-compliance with the Council of Europe’s principles that pose a “general problem for the development of local and regional democracy in the country”. In particular, the rapporteurs regret a low share of public affairs under the responsibility of local authorities, a lack of financial resources available to them, and an unclear division of competences between different levels of government. Moreover, they express their concern about the access to electoral rights in Russia, namely the limited freedom of independent and opposition candidates to stand for local and regional elections.

At the same time, the rapporteurs expressed their concern regarding the access of independent and opposition candidates to electoral rights as a result of legal requirements for candidates to gather a considerable number of signatures in support of their candidatures. “To register as a candidate for a post of a deputy in Moscow City Duma (Moscow legislature), one must gather from 5 to 6 thousand signatures. And, even if this requirement is met, other obstacles may emerge,” said Jakob Wienen, stressing how these filters hinder independent and opposition candidates’ access to electoral rights and create an un-level playing field in elections.

The deficiencies with the registration of independent candidates that today’s report highlights had already been evoked by the Congress President Anders Knape in his statement of 12 September 2019, following municipal elections in the Russian Federation.

The Congress requests that Russia abolishes the legal provision requiring an excessive number of signatures and recommends guaranteeing equal access to electoral rights to independent and opposition candidates. It also recommends abolishing the “municipal filter”, i.e. endorsement by municipal councillors of the candidatures at the level of federal subjects. The introduction of the “municipal filter” was criticised by Wienen, as it means that the candidates running for a governor’s office are filtered by local councillors from local councils dominated by representatives of the ruling party who tend to support ‘loyal’ candidates. “In our view, it is difficult to expect a meaningful political competition under such conditions”, he underlined.

Co-rapporteur Dickson drew attention to the issue of the involvement of governors in the appointment and dismissal of mayors. “We consider the involvement of governors in the appointment procedure disproportional and potentially dangerous,” he said, explaining that, given a strong tradition of centralism in Russia, this can regrettably pave the way for governors’ political control over mayors and carries a very high risk of tightening a vertical axis of power. Similarly, the Russian legislation still permits the dismissal of mayors by the local councils.” For this reason, the Congress recommends amending the legislation to guarantee mayoral elections by voters and removing the legal provisions allowing the dismissal of mayors by governors.

Other recommendations include ensuring that local authorities dispose of adequate financial resources of their own and that the delegation of tasks to local authorities from the higher level of government is accompanied by commensurate funding to implement them.

The report is based on the findings of the visits to the Russian Federation on 23-25 October 2018 and 5-7 March 2019 and covers the period up to mid-July 2019.

• Stewart Dickson’s speech
• Jakob Wienen’s speech
• Monitoring of the European Charter of Local Self-Government

Videos of the debate:

• Presentation of the report by the co-rapporteurs: EN - FR - Original 
• Speech by Sergei Bystrevskii, Vice-minister of Justice of the Russian Federation: EN - FR - Original (Russian)

** 37th Session of the Congress **

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