Party chairman Dmitry Medvedev announced the creation of the new committee at a joint meeting of the bureau of the Supreme Council and the party’s General Council. At present, the committee on information policy, information technologies, and communications handles digital technology issues, and in the new convocation it is proposed to keep it separate under the leadership of Sergey Boyarsky.
Another new committee will be the committee on criminal and administrative legislation; the party proposes to assign it to Yuri Petrov. Pavel Krasheninnikov, at the suggestion of “United Russia”, should head the committee on constitutional and civil legislation and the judicial system.
In total, the number of Duma committees is expected to increase from 32 to 35. Of these, United Russia members expect to head 20, or about 57%, whereas when the State Duma of the eighth convocation was formed in 2021, the party received 17 of the 32 committees, or about 53%.
Among the key areas, the party proposes to keep the budget, defense, international, energy committee, and the committee on security and anti-corruption under its representatives. The committee on budget and taxes should again be headed by Andrey Makarov, the committee on international affairs by Pyotr Tolstoy, the committee on security by Vasily Piskaryov, and the party proposed entrusting the defense committee to Admiral Vladimir Kasatonov.
The candidacies for chairpersons are to be discussed by the United Russia faction on September 29, after which they will be included in a package agreement on the distribution of leadership positions among the factions. The committee leaders are to be finally approved by deputies at the first plenary session of the new convocation, which is expected on September 30. The United Russia faction in the new Duma will have 349 deputies: 140 elected from the federal list and 209 in single-mandate districts.
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