On 25 March I was at the inauguration of the new President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Nurgaliyevich Minnikhanov.

The inauguration was a very dignified ceremony and I was glad to be able to take part. Ex-President Mintimer Shaymiyev was the first to congratulate him on his new position. We all know that the Shaymiyev era was an era of development and prosperity for the Republic. During his 20 years in power he had to live through a lot, but he managed to hold on not only to his job, but also to the affections and respect of his people. And that says it all. The stable and peaceful transfer of power in the Republic is also due to Shaymiyev, who put together a strong team and has handed over leadership of Tatarstan to a man with lots of experience.

The new president is no outsider: he’s worked in the government for over 10 years. Incidentally, it’s largely thanks to Minnikhanov that our country won the right to host the World Summer Universiade Games in 2013. As Tatarstan’s Prime Minster, Minnikhanov put a lot of energy into ensuring that Kazan met the criteria for the Universiade. He personally attended the final presentations in Brussels by the cities bidding for the Universiade. And now Rustam Nurgaliyevich is in charge of building all the sports facilities for the event.

The Universiade will be a rehearsal for the Olympic Games in Sochi and they’ve already done a lot of new building work for it!

On the day of the inauguration I also managed to attend a school rhythmic gymnastics tournament. Actually, I ended up there quite by chance: the Privolzhanka school was holding a tournament called “Nurly Yaz” (“Radiant Spring” in Tatar), which coincided with my visit to the Republic, so of course I couldn’t turn down the kids’ invitation. I enjoyed handing out the awards to the best gymnasts and congratulated them all on their successes and also on the inauguration of their new president, which is a celebration for the whole of Tatarstan.

What a joy it is to watch the young gymnasts, to see how seriously they take it and how hard they try!

There’s quite a difference between how Astrakhan looked last year (I was here for the city’s anniversary celebration) and how it looks now. You can see the city growing and developing, and the dilapidated housing estates are being replaced. There are problems, of course, but the place is changing. Astrakhan really is turning into a new city. They’re doing particularly well on building new sports infrastructure and I particularly remember the newly built Zvezdny sports complex. This is a modern, multifunctional facility that’s fully equipped for many types of sport; they have a fitness club and a hall for rhythmic gymnastics. I really liked the rhythmic gymnastics hall, by the way: the training facilities there are just superb. I once came to Astrakhan as a little girl to take part in a competition. We lived in a hostel and performed in some cold hall…Nowadays it’s all completely different, which I’m really pleased to see, of course. And the main thing is that lots and lots of young people are doing sport and the halls are simply bursting at the seams. Which means there’s a demand for new facilities these days and they need to be built.

I was visiting Astrakhan with the United Russia Party to take part in the opening of a sports and health complex for students at the pedagogical university (part of the party’s “Higher Education - Healthy Lifestyle” project in the region). I met the students. They’ve been provided with some very good facilities in the sports halls where they practice – it’s all clean and cozy and the students are thrilled. They gave me a really warm welcome.

I had a fascinating meeting with some young people at the Young Journalists’ Club. We talked about the media coverage of the 65th anniversary of Victory Day. The journalists told me about the material (reports, articles, video features) they had put together for the celebration. I gave them my support and said that I thought the emotional backdrop to any report on the Victory was very important and that it was up to young journalists to carry forward the values held by the generation that won the war. If you put your heart into it, together with all your youthful drive, you can produce a real living celebration rather than just the usual lip service.

There was another trip that wasn’t scheduled and happened almost by chance. That was a visit to a maternity hospital - one of the biggest in southern Russia. It’s been partially renovated and there are two floors where everything seems OK, but I asked them to show me the parts that are still to be renovated, just to get a feel for the difference. Well, I was upset, of course. If you look at the way health care is organized in Europe, we’ve got an awful long way to go…and not just in our maternity hospitals, but in our regional infirmaries and the quality of service. There’s still an awful lot to be done.

Overall, I’m pleased with the trip to Astrakhan: we managed to do everything that we planned.

In late June, at a plenary session of the State Duma, there was a discussion of amendments to the Law on Nonprofit Organizations to make it easier for the nonprofits to operate, because there have been quite a lot of complaints about the basic law. (Incidentally, these issues were amongst those actively debated at an international conference on nonprofit law in late April in Moscow, which I took part in: http://www.kabaeva.alina.ru/sovet/civilsociety/269/ ). Actually, I have a particular and purely practical interest in the subject of nonprofit organizations, because I head a charity of my own. And when I was registering it and filling in all the forms (all charities have the status of nonprofit organizations) I came up against all sorts of problems, both big and small. So, naturally, I was very keen to take part in the debate on amendments to the nonprofits law not just as a legislator, but also as someone with a vested interest.

I studied all the pre-read for the meeting very closely and consulted a lot with the lawyers. The new law had clearly been thoroughly drafted, but I still picked up a few points that I decided to bring to the attention of my fellow deputies. To an outsider, these may have looked insignificant, but in real life they could be a pain.

What I liked most of all about the new law is that a nonprofit organization can no longer be refused registration just because its documents have not been properly drawn up. And in addition, the authorities can no longer demand documents that are not listed in the law. But the problem is that nowhere is it written down just exactly HOW the documents should be drawn up. So I put forward the following proposal: “Documents submitted by a nonprofit organization for state registration must be drawn up in the proper manner. The procedure for drawing up documents shall be defined by the authorized government body.” (the authorized government body being the Ministry of Justice).

The second point that I thought was important was the fact that the new law abolishes reporting requirements for organizations with an annual budget of no more than 3 million roubles. These organizations now only need to provide notification that they are still operating, either via the internet or in the media. But in small towns and villages it can sometimes be very difficult getting access to the internet. So I think we, the legislators, have to provide the nonprofits with guaranteed access to the internet (even if this access is limited). So I proposed the following wording: “Recommend that the RF Government pass a Resolution “On Providing Assistance with the Free Publication of Information on their Activities as Required by the Law on Nonprofit Organizations on the Internet” (by analogy with similar Resolutions on the publication of information on open tenders and auctions)”.

And finally, the third point was about the number of checks carried out on the nonprofit organizations. Under the new law, they will be checked once every three years (rather once a year, as in the past). This is excellent. But besides the scheduled checks there are all sorts of agencies that carry out their own checks, sometimes in a completely unsystematic way. To protect the nonprofits against all this I suggested adding: “Give nonprofit organizations equal rights with commercial organizations in respect of checks on all matters, not only scheduled checks, especially taking into account that both commercial and nonprofit organizations are legal entities”.

Unfortunately, my amendments and some other suggestions from my colleagues were not accepted by the Duma. As for the new version of the law, it was signed by the President and enacted on 1 August (except for a few clauses that will come into force in January 2010). But I’ll always be able to put forward my amendments to the current law on nonprofit organizations again in the future. The important thing is that the amendments already approved really do improve the existing law at lot. And I’m sure this will be very important for creating a civil society in Russia.

At the meeting with representatives of youth organizations in Astrakhan there was a very interesting and meaty discussion of issues connected with Youth Year. I’ve decided to put out on the website some questions that are of particular concern to young people (and not only in Astrakhan), together with my answers to them.
I’d be glad if these topics are of interest to you also, and you share your views by leaving a response or comment on the website.



1. The Young Family federal programme and benefits for youth house-building cooperatives

Question. We urban newlyweds are disadvantaged compared to those that live in the country. The amount offered under the programme is sometimes not enough to buy a place to live. A square meter of housing is much more expensive in the regional capital. And the level of social support guaranteed by the programme is not high. Perhaps it would be better to allocate funds to build housing such as hostels for young people with small families as well, as they did in the Soviet period. And also pass a law approving the benefits for youth house-building cooperatives. Perhaps the Duma Youth Committee has already drafted some legislation to help promote social housing for young people.

Answer. I wouldn’t agree that urban youth is disadvantaged, because people in towns are in a better starting position: pay, education, job opportunities, infrastructure. But I think the idea of granting benefits to youth house-building cooperatives is a very good one. I’ll ask them to raise the issue and consider it.
As for legislation to promote social housing for young people, there are no laws aimed specifically at young people, but one way or another you can find benefits available under various programmes, such as the federal Housing 2002-2010 programme.



2. Jobs for Graduates

Question: I’m a final-year university student and, like many other graduates, am having great difficulty finding a job. According to the statistics, one third of those graduating from higher and secondary education are unable to find jobs in their fields. Of course this is partly because so many unneeded specialists are being produced. And secondly, there are no jobs reserved for young people. Everyone is looking for specialists with experience. But where do you pick up experience if you can no longer play the trick of including time spent in higher and secondary specialized education in your work service record? We young specialists are offered low-paid jobs. Perhaps it’s time to start thinking about a nationwide Youth Talent Pool programme. This would aim to standardize the criteria for candidates and include tests to assess the knowledge, psychological and physical qualities of young specialists, while also providing potential employers with recommendations on recruiting people. What do you think of creating programmes like this to tackle the problems of jobs for young people?

Answer. I think it’s a good idea. But on the other hand we have a Federal Employment Service that has branches in every region and town in Russia. Any graduate student can go there and register as unemployed, and the Service will help him find a job free of charge. But it can only offer the jobs that employers need to fill. In Moscow State University, for example, there’s a student job placement section. And if an employer doesn’t take on young people or takes them on at low salaries, neither the Employment Service nor any other unions or programmes can change things. I think we need to set up a Russian national data base to regulate the numbers training in the various subject areas. And this should preferably also take account of geographical factors.

I agree there’s a problem of too little demand for young specialists. But from my point of view this needs to be addressed at the legislative level. In other words, the employment laws need to be amended give employers an incentive to hire graduates – for example, by cutting taxes for companies that employ a certain number of young specialists, students and graduates.

3. Building New District Health and Fitness Centres for Young People

Question: “I represent the Sporting Russia national voluntary society. A large sports centre was recently opened in our city, but not that many people can get to it from different parts of town. Take me, for example: I study until lunchtime, then I go to work, and in the evenings I’d like to do some sport and work out on the weight machines, but it can be quite a problem travelling from one part of town to another, especially in the evenings. Our organization has suggested setting up district health and fitness centres for young people, co-funded from the city, district and federal budgets under specialized programmes. We’d really like you, as a State Duma deputy and the official representative of all sportsmen in the Russian Government, to help us with this issue!”

Reply. Interesting idea. Put together a formal petition in writing (see specimen on my website) and I’ll try to help.

4. Programme to Promote Tolerance amongst Young People

Question. There are over 200 nationalities living in our city and after many long years of coexistence we’ve all learned to respect each others’ culture, religion and customs. I think there’s now a need for a special programme at the federal level to promote tolerance amongst young people. And we could make our own contribution to writing this programme by sharing our experience. What’s your view on this?

Answer. That’s a good idea, and I’d be happy to discuss it in the committee. Send your suggestions to my website or by post to the Duma. You could also organize a virtual debate on this via the Internet.

On 13 July my first session as a State Duma deputy came to an end, and I’ve decided to sum up the results. They can be divided into two parts: first, things that were done by all the deputies (the Duma’s team report, you might say); and second, things that I personally did for my voters and for people who have written asking for help (my personal report for the past half-year in the Duma).
As far as part 1 is concerned, 164 federal laws were passed during the session and 3 federal constitutional laws were approved. These included some very important laws in the sphere of social policy: grants were increased; state sector wages and servicemen’s pay were indexed; and pensions, benefits and welfare payments were indexed twice during the year. For the first time in law, child benefits were indexed. Plus, of course, the law on raising the minimum wage to the subsidence level.
I would also mention the Law on Guardianship and Trusteeship, amendments to the Labour Code that give legal recognition to some issues concerning the work of sportsmen and trainers, and Russia’s accession to the WHO framework convention on tobacco control. In addition, the State Duma passed a resolution on the Public Youth Chamber under the State Duma.
Now for my personal report: during the spring session I received 92 appeals from Russian citizens, and followed them up by sending off 70 official deputy’s requests. In the city of Nizhnekamsk (my constituency) I set up a public liaison office, and during a trip to the region in late May I held a surgery for constituents. On Russia Youth Day on 27 June 2008, at the plenary session, virtually all the deputies supported my initiative to ask President Dmitriy Medvedev to declare 2009 Youth Year. There was also a lot of heated debate in the Youth Committee on the bill on state youth policy in the Russian Federation.
That’s all for now. I’d like to have done more, of course, but I hope I’ll manage this during the next session. This is just the start.☺

At the end of June (27/06) the State Duma scheduled a second reading of the Technical Regulations on Tobacco Products, but it still hasn’t managed to finalize the bill. I should point out that the second reading is the most difficult stage of drafting a bill, because this is when all the main amendments are made. (The third reading is about technicalities rather than any changes of substance.)
So anyway, during the drafting of these regulations a large number of important amendments were proposed. The document is now being thoroughly checked to make sure it’s consistent with international documents such as the Directive of the European Parliament and EU Council on the production, packaging and sale of tobacco products.
You might think at first sight that the amendments being debated are insignificant, but that’s not the case. For example, the regulations set out permissible limits for hazardous substances in unfiltered cigarettes, but there’s nothing about filter cigarettes. You might think this is a trifle, but actually it’s not, because there’s much more demand from consumers for filter cigarettes. Which means we could end up with no controls over most tobacco products. Or take, for example, the danger warnings on the packets. The law has to not only make these warnings mandatory, but also set out some standards, such as the size, form and colour of the letters, the layout, the background and even the spacing between the lines. Otherwise the tobacco manufacturers might put warnings on the packets that are too small to read. These are danger warnings and they need to be noticed!
Also, for example, I completely agree with the proposal to ban the use of terms like “light”, “ultra light”, “mild” and “low tar content” to describe cigarettes. All these crafty words are designed to mislead, and you might think that smoking those types of cigarettes is not in the least dangerous for your health.
Besides the Technical Regulations the Duma is discussing amendments to the Law on Restriction of Tobacco Smoking (Article 3). These amendments aim to bring our Russian basic law into line with the WHO (World Health Organization) convention on tobacco control. It’s mostly about improving public awareness of the dangers of tobacco. The Duma plans to review the amendments in their second reading in parallel with the Technical Regulations.
I really hope that all this anti-smoking legislation will be finalized and passed by the State Duma in the autumn session.

The sitting was very festive and I was really pleased for the other deputies who were awarded medals for their work and their contributions to the development of parliamentarianism in Russia. But once the official part was over the deputies went back to their usual work: debating bills, arguing, making proposals. Actually the most important thing for the current Duma is not how long it’s been operating, but how effective it is.

A newspaper recently asked me what new National Project I would propose.
I would propose one to help sportsmen integrate into society when their sporting careers are over. It’s no secret that we have lots and lots of sportsmen who can’t find a role for themselves once they stop performing. Not everyone can become a trainer, after all. So what are these people to do? I think we should give them the opportunity to choose another profession, And although it’s hard for them to imagine a life without sport, they’re still young and are perfectly capable of learning a new trade. But they definitely need help with this.
I’m pleased that I’m involved in such important and valuable work and that I’ve found a role in life after sport. But not everyone is so lucky. It’s not right when a sportsman who has stood on the pedestal and heard the Russian anthem played in his honour is suddenly no use to anyone at the age of 30-35. I’m sure a national project like this would not only help sportsmen to find their feet, but would also make people respect our country more, both at home and abroad.

In the middle of April at the plenary session of the Duma there was a debate on Russia’s accession to the World Health Organization’s convention on tobacco control, which is already in effect in 150 countries. Naturally, I voted in favour, because I think it would mean Russia introducing restrictions on smoking in public places and on the sale and advertizing of tobacco. I totally support this bill.

The Congress impressed me by the scale of the tasks it faces.
The United Russia congress was a very high-level event, matching the scale of our country. To be honest, I would love to have spoken at the congress in support of the innovative development path discussed in the Strategy 2020 forum. Of course, it’s a good thing that Russia is rich in natural resources, but this shouldn’t put us too much at our ease. It’s time for the country to move away from an economy based on the extractive industries towards development through innovation. An innovative path and innovative ideas aimed primarily at unleashing and realizing human potential are also very important ways of addressing some of the youth issues.
It’s very important for the government to invest and put resources into young people, providing as many opportunities as possible for education, development, professional achievement and jobs. And our young people need to be paid a decent wage so that instead of emigrating our golden youth employs its talents here and works for the good of the country.
The socio-economic development strategy to 2020, which was discussed at the congress, makes it clear that by 2020 today’s young people will be running the country. And for them to build a strong and confident Russia young people today need to have a good foundation.

There’s a big debate going on at the moment over the youth policy bill, which is something we don’t have in our country yet. I’ve put together some comments and recommendations on this bill: for example, I’m proposing that the law recognizes economic independence for young people, introducing new concepts such as “young person’s business”, “young entrepreneur” and “youth mass media”. I’m also looking closely at European legislation in this area and I’m sure we can learn something from it.

We spent a whole month together with the Centre for Nonprofit Law seeking, analyzing and studying laws on youth policy in several European countries and the US. I’m sure that comparing and studying experiences is very valuable. It doesn’t meant we’re just going to copy somebody else’s laws, but we might find some ideas and thoughts that could take root in our country, that could be adapted to our situation and produce results in the area I’m working on the moment - youth policy.
If you look, for example, at tax legislation in most European Union countries, they grant income tax exemptions or concessions to organizations serving young people. I think this is very good principle. In our country, the reality of the way the laws are applied is that the government provides hardly any benefits or privileges to youth organizations. The registration and control procedures and reporting by youth organizations are no different than for other nonprofit organizations. Taxation of youth organizations is no different from the tax treatment of other nonprofit organizations.
I’m going to work to get this principle into law. And you know what’s interesting? – in the US and most European countries, unlike the Russian Federation, there’s no specific legislation on youth issues and youth policies. I’m going to try to continue, here on my website, pointing out interesting things and examples from other countries’ legislation.

There’s a big debate going on at the moment over the Law on Amendments to the RF Code of Administrative Violations. Briefly, they’re proposing amending Articles 3.5 and 5.27 to increase the liability of officials guilty of violating the laws on employing children under 18. In other words, they’re proposing bigger fines for dishonest businessmen who exploit minors. Of course, I fully support the idea of protecting teenagers and their employment rights. Employers have to take responsibility for their staff and for minors in particular. But at the same time, from my point of view, these proposed new amendments are not going to change things fundamentally.
Straight away I have a number of questions. For example, why are they proposing to increase the fines? Why do they think the current fines aren’t big enough? From my point of view it’s impossible to pass judgment on the size of the fines today because there are no statistics and no research has been done. There’s been no analysis of the current situation to show clearly that the existing law is bad and needs to be improved. Besides, if the amendments are passed, there’s a risk that the higher fines will be counterproductive: businessmen will simply stop taking on minors. And I see nothing wrong with young people under the age of 18 wanting to work. But at the same time, of course, it’s important that their work doesn’t distract them from their studies or damage their health.

In 2007 I became a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. I was elected to represent the Republic of Tatarstan, and this was one of the most significant events of my life. By giving me their trust, the voters’ have placed huge obligations upon me, though I won’t pretend that I wasn’t delighted that they chose me. I’ve taken on a great responsibility, but I’ll try to do everything in my power to live up to my voters’ expectations.

The first session of the State Duma. It was all very solemn. First, the opening speech was given by the oldest deputy, Zhores Alferov, who declared the first session of the Duma open. Everyone stood up and the Russian national anthem was played. It was all very emotional for me…
I’ve heard it so many times abroad, but this was the first time here at home. There, the Russian anthem was played after competitions and lots of excitement - it was the finale, the very last and most moving reward for our whole team and country. But here it was played at the very beginning of my new path. I took it as a good sign.
Everything will be OK. People trust us and we won’t let them down!

When you achieve something in one area you automatically start wondering whether you should try yourself in another. And that’s what happened with me. I’ve been interested in the subject of youth for a long time: first, in connection with sport; and then I became interested in youth policy as a whole – both in Russia and internationally.
So when I was offered a place on the United Russia party list for the State Duma elections I accepted almost immediately. In December I became a Duma deputy and was elected Deputy Chairman of the Youth Committee. I’m now doing a lot of background reading to try and understand everything that’s been done in this area, and I’m talking to experts, colleagues and voters.
What’s my goal? My goal is for any boy or girl to be able to fully realize their potential, to make the “can do” attitude possible here and now, rather than in some other life or country.
What do you think?
It’s very important for me that this site not only helps you to get to know me, but also helps me to understand you.