Verkhovna Rada: 400 in the hall, 1 in the pre-trial detention center. Why does parliament lose its deputies?

In four days of winter, two deputies announced their intention to resign their powers early. Both Maxim Efimov and Dmitry Shpenov are majoritarians; accordingly, it is impossible to replace them in the Rada during martial law. So about

The actual number of people's deputies capable of taking part in meetings is 400. Another majoritarian deputy, Alexander Dubinsky , is now in a pre-trial detention center and is unable to exercise his powers.

There could have been 399 deputies, but Andrei Odarchenko, who was in the same pre-trial detention center as Dubinsky, was given bail and can take part in the meetings.

Are the “majors” bored?

Maxim Efimov became the first - on December 1, 2023, he announced his intention to resign his mandate. In a long post on social networks, he said that war conditions increase the demand for personal leadership, which, according to the parliamentarian, “ lies in the ability to provide people with security, economic activity and social protection .” The Verkhovna Rada, says Maxim Efimov, currently does not provide the opportunity to implement this functionality.

Maxim Efimov is non-factional, but before that he was one of the leaders of the Revival of Ukraine group. Together with the “Platform for Life and Peace,” this group was created from deputies who were previously members of the OPZZ faction. It is interesting that in the Verkhovna Rada of the previous convocation, Maxim Efimov was a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction.

Just two days later, on December 4, it became known that another deputy, Dmitry Shpenov , wrote a statement about the early resignation of parliamentary powers. Unlike Maxim Efimov, Dmitry Shpenov did not share his motives on social networks. The published statement did not specify a reason. At the moment, like Efimov, he is non-factional. Previously, he was part of the so-called Novinsky group. Vadim Novinsky himself resigned his parliamentary mandate in the summer of 2022, and in January 2023 the National Security and Defense Council imposed sanctions against him.

As mentioned above, Shpenov and Efimov are majoritarians; accordingly, in order to replace them, it is necessary to hold early elections in the districts. Considering the so-called Monet’s memorandum on the inexpediency of elections earlier than six months after the end of martial law, these districts will be left without their representatives in the Verkhovna Rada.

At “Batkivshchyna” Kharkov is naked

This is not the first refusal of parliamentary powers this year and, most likely, not the last. , People’s Deputy of the Batkivshchyna faction Vitaly Danilov informed about this intention He headed the Kharkov regional organization “Batkivshchyna” - from this post in the party Danilov also asks to be released

Vitaly Danilov ran on the party list, so his place can be taken by both Mikhail Sokolov , the first in line, and anyone else who did not get into parliament from Batkivshchyna. Mikhail Sokolov is known for the fact that in 2019, after working in the Dnepropetrovsk City Council and in the Verkhovna Rada as a deputy, he announced the end of his political career and returned to business. It is curious that at one time he actively worked for the release of Yulia Tymoshenko as a human rights activist (then led the Nikolaev party organization), and in 2014 he arranged a visit to Ukraine for the head of the Association of US Congressmen Jim Slattery .

However, in the non-mandate part of the list of Batkivshchyna candidates there are also more notable people. For example, ex-ambassador of Ukraine and former adviser to the head of the SBU Markiyan Lubkivsky or ex-chairman of the State Committee for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship Alexandra Kuzhel.

For Yulia Tymoshenko, Vitaly Danilov’s demarche could become a significant problem, says the director of the Ukrainian Analytical Group, Alexander Okhrimenko, because he provided, to a large extent, financial support for the party: “ There are almost no sponsors left... The latest polls for July 2023 showed what the party is for today 2.3% would vote for “Batkivshchyna”. This does not give Yulia a chance to get her deputies into the Verkhovna Rada... And she is afraid to invest her money, so sponsors simply run away from her ,” the expert said, citing sources in parliament.

People's Deputy of the Batkivshchyna faction Oleksiy Kucherenko openly laughs at this version. At the same time, he hints that the source of this version may well be from Moscow. As for Danilov’s replacement, the party will be determined on December 8.

Chronic shortage

The Verkhovna Rada of the current convocation initially had a shortage: only 424 deputies out of 450 according to the Constitution of Ukraine. This happened because parliamentary elections were not held in the temporarily occupied territories.

The newly elected parliament lasted more than half of its term. The first - in June 2020 - was to write a statement about the resignation of the mandate of people's deputy Svyatoslav Vakarchuk . “It’s been like this since then ,” noted people’s deputy (Eurosolidarity faction) Irina Gerashchenko.

Vesti.ua has already written about the main “refuseniks” of 2023, but in fact, deputies left not only because of scandals or for unknown reasons. With the beginning of the large-scale armed invasion of the Russian Federation, parliamentarians changed mandates for the front, some for appointments to the Cabinet. Thus, in March 2022, Mikhail Zabrodsky (EU faction) returned to military service and was appointed to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “ He is really more needed at the front , ” Eurosolidarity noted

Two more deputies ( Roman Lozinsky and Roman Kostenko) , as of February 2023, went to the front, but did not give up their mandates. At least, such data was provided by Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk.

Thus, the Verkhovna Rada of the current convocation is the most dynamic. Perhaps this is good, since parliament quickly responds to the challenges of the time. But turnover also indicates systemic reasons.

The deputy’s share has become hard and poor

One of them is increased attention to the life and work of people's deputies, which became even more acute during the war.

“ Not everyone, when they ran for office, wanted such publicity. And in a war situation, it raises additional questions about what initiatives they register. And if some of the deputies aspired to the Verkhovna Rada, let’s be frank, in order to protect their business interests, then they definitely don’t really like such additional social attention and workload ,” said political scientist Alexey Yakubin.

This dissatisfaction intensified with the change in the law on PEPs (politically exposed persons), according to which both deputies and members of their families remain the focus of attention, at least from regulatory authorities, for life. Especially those parliamentarians who are not politicians, but more “businessmen,” certainly did not expect that, based on the results of monitoring, they would be targets for society, Yakubin believes.

At the same time, the privileges that came with the status of a people’s deputy were devalued. For example, traveling abroad - here the opportunities are narrowed, as the scandal with Petro Poroshenko at customs showed. At the same time, the issue of time became more acute: some mandate holders did not expect that they would have to serve as people’s representatives longer than expected in 2019. And also “I do not rule out that some of them simply want to leave Ukraine (because of the war), some have families abroad, they are “pressuring”, so the deputies are ready to leave the Rada ,” suggested Aleksey Yakubin.

Basket of hot stones

But there is a more systemic reason for the current decline in parliamentarians in the Rada - the decrease in the influence of parliamentarians on political and economic processes. And since the “crust” does not give anything, but creates problems, the decline in deputies will most likely continue. This opinion was expressed to Vesti.ua by the President of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics Ruslan Bortnyk.

 ”Now an ordinary deputy or a group of people’s representatives, in fact, have no influence on anything. Moreover, the abolition of immunity and their toxic public image (parliamentary anti-rating - 80%) led to the fact that most of them became objects of close attention from anti-corruption authorities. Not a day goes by without some kind of accusation or suspicion. At the same time, both society and the military also constantly demand something from deputies or put pressure on them. For people burdened with business and business interests, parliament has turned not even into a suitcase without a handle, but into a basket of hot stones,” Bortnik believes.