06 Public oversight

6.1Institute for public observation of elections in the Russian Federation

To date, the Russian Federation has created a system of public observation over elections that the world practice has never seen before, both in terms of the scale of activity and in terms of institutional and legal design. The system of public oversight in place is capable to cover all forms of voting, including remote electronic voting (REV).

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and regional civic chambers have been carrying out public monitoring of compliance with the electoral rights of citizens since 2012. However, the legislation before 2018 did not allow the interests of subjects of public oversight to be fully implemented when ensuring the rights and legitimate interests of voters.

Thanks to the active involvement of civil society, in recent years not only the legislation has been changed and the possibilities for public oversight over the voting process in various forms have been expanded, but also a comprehensive infrastructure has been created, which has various civil society institutions and the expert community.

The adopted legislative amendments enabled the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and regional civic chambers to appoint observers during elections at various levels. From that moment on, the system of public oversight began to cover elections at all levels in the country.

The most important and defining stage for the development of the institution of public observation was the 2018 presidential elections. This was an event where for the first time civic chambers dispatched to polling stations about 150 thousand public observers who were not interested in the victory of any political force. The main purpose of observation was to ensure transparency of voting.²⁹⁹

The main factor for the success of the public observation campaign in 2018 was the increase in the level of trust of citizens in election procedures and election results. According to the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VCIOM), the level of satisfaction with the elections constituted 87%. This figure was the highest in the last three presidential election campaigns. Confidence in the results of the presidential elections among Russians also reached a historical maximum for all measurement periods, amounting to 60%; another 28% of respondents admitted that there could have been violations that did not affect the voting results.³⁰⁰ Accordingly, the experience of public observation gained during the 2018 presidential campaign was replicated in regional elections.

The 2020 election cycle, being featured by high activity of the civil society, turned out to be a milestone for the institution of public election observation. That year, a nationwide vote on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation from June 25 to July 1 was held, and for the first time, amid the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the country, the practice of multiday voting was applied.

In 2020, the system of remote electronic voting (REV) was also used for the first time at the federal level. During the all-Russian vote on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, residents of Moscow and the Nizhny Novgorod region could vote remotely; during a single voting day, the REV system was used in by-elections to the State Duma in the Kursk and Yaroslavl regions. Subsequently, the practice of using remote voting was consistently replicated and scaled.

Based on the results of voting on amendments to the Constitution of Russia, the Coordination Council under the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation for Public Oversight over Voting was established, and which today operates routinely.

In 2021, a new tool for digitalizing communications between observers and the Situation Center was developed for the public observation system – the “Mobile Observer” application. This application ensured the prompt transmission of information about the progress of elections to the Situation Center of the Civic Chamber.³⁰¹

more than 1 million people took part in all election observation projects in the country over the past years.

To date, the Institute of Public Observation is one of the largest projects of Russian civil society.³⁰²

 

The 2022 elections took place in a fundamentally new foreign policy situation: amid unprecedented external pressure, information attacks and threats, which augmented due to the special military operation. But nevertheless, the civil society institutions were able to consolidate efforts to ensure the legitimacy of the electoral rights of Russian citizens.

In 2022, more than 51 thousand observers from the civic chamber systems passed the training.³⁰³ This election cycle achieved the most important goals of the public oversight system, that is, public observation covered all types of voting and all levels of elections.

Involved in the recruitment and training of observers today more than 2 ths. public organizations 400 experts

of the IPM Association (independent public monitoring) work in partnership with the civic chambers system.³⁰⁴

 

Thus, by 2023, a stable ecosystem of public observation was formed, which protracted the independent oversight over elections in place to become a factor in the stability of the electoral system in the face of external challenges and global sociopolitical threats.

The 2023 electoral cycle took place with the active attempts by Western countries to discredit the electoral process in Russia. Traditional elections were held on a single voting day to distribute 33 thousand deputy mandates and elect 26 senior officials of the regions of Russia, and the heads of a number of municipalities. And it was for the first time on a single voting day when authorities were elected together with citizens living in the new regions of Russia, that is the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

In anticipation of preparations for the elections, the Civic Chamber in cooperation with the IPM Association conducted traditional training for public observers from June to September 2023.

Within three months preceding the single voting day on September 10, 2023, training under the program of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the IPM association was completed by more than 100 ths. future observers

Held 1,309 training seminars in 49 regions of Russia.³⁰⁵

On August 10, the Civic Chamber and 15 political parties held a traditional meeting, which was concluded by a cooperation and interaction agreement. A similar agreement was signed on August 18 with more than 60 of the country’s largest public and nonprofit organizations.³⁰⁶

Applications to conduct the REV in 2023 were submitted by 31 regions of Russia.

Based on the results of an assessment of the digital infrastructure and readiness to conduct the REV, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation determined 25 regions, where the REV system was used in 2023.

Out of which 18 carried out electronic voting for the first time.³⁰⁷

To prepare and conduct the REV, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation formed a territorial election commission for conducting remote electronic voting (TEC REV), which, along with representatives of political parties, included representatives of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and regional civic chambers.

The Coordination Council under the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation for Public Oversight over Voting, similarly to the “Gold Standard” for public observers located directly at polling stations, developed a unified standard for monitoring remote electronic voting in a checklist format, and which became the main tool for monitoring the electronic voting. It enabled to track the correctness and legality of all actions of the organizers.

Checklist for monitoring the REV

The checklist includes 63 check items and covers such key blocks as “Procedure for dividing the decryption key”, “Uploading initial data into the Software And Hardware Complex of the REV”, “Monitoring the progress of the REV”, “Working with the list of REV participants”, “Procedure for assembling the decryption key”, and “Executing a TEC REV protocol on the results of the REV”.³⁰⁸

 

As monitoring the REV system requires advanced knowledge, additional training was organized for observers representing various political and nonpolitical forces. And this training was housed by the REV Observer School.

Directly on voting days, the operation of the REV system was monitored by more than 200 observers both online and offline.³⁰⁹

 

From 2023, observers could monitor the progress of remote voting both in person, in the premises of the TEC REV, and remotely.³¹⁰ The voter who used the REV system had the ability to control the counting of the vote as well. To check its “safety” the voter could proceed through a special Internet portal of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.³¹¹

REV results

1,076 ths. voters voted through the platform of the federal REV

35–50 years old — who voted electronically

2.5 million Muscovites voted through the REV³¹²

The most active online voters were residents of the Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, and Altai regions.³¹³

 

Over the course of three days of voting, the Civic Chamber of Russia and regional civic chambers monitored the progress of voting. Such large-scale work was possible thanks to the creation of a network of public election observation headquarters.

The Situation Centre of the Civic Chamber has traditionally been the liaison coordinating public observation in the field. And this center throughout the voting received, analyzed and verified messages from observers and citizens about possible violations, as well as ensured effective communication between voters, observers, headquarters and experts of the Civic Chamber.

During the past elections the Russian electoral system demonstrated a high degree of stability. Despite multiple attempts to discredit the electoral process, the voting process turned out to be impregnable. Based on the results of public observation, no serious violations that could cast doubt on the voting results were revelead.

Number of fakes and scam sites

more than 300 scam sites on the topic of elections was spotted from August to early September³¹⁵

Recorded number of messages about discrediting Russian elections on social networks:

1,311 messages

1,800 messages

703 messages

181 messages³¹⁶

The successful implementation of the public observation campaign once again convincingly showed that ensuring public oversight over the formation of public authorities in the Russian Federation today is becoming the most important and integral element of the political system, a trait of its maturity, openness and democracy.

Nevetherless, work to improve the public observation system did not stop with the end of the 2023 election campaign. For example, the Civic Chamber created an expert group to study the proposals of independent observers and IT experts who monitored the work of the federal platform of the REV on voting days.³¹⁷

6.2Regional civic chambers of the Russian Federation

Regional civic chambers of the Russian Federation are intended to ensure the coordination of socially significant interests of citizens, nonprofit organizations, government bodies of the relevant regions of Russia, and local governance to resolve the most important regional issues of economic and social development, protect the rights and freedoms of citizens, which contributes to the effective and sustainable development of regions and the country as a whole, make it possible to achieve the best results, satisfy the needs and interests of the population.

Today, being independent subjects of public observation, regional civic chambers systematically participate in monitoring the development of local legislation and conduct public examination of regional bills of high social significance.

In a number of regions of Russia civic chambers are authorized to initiate legislation, which they actively implement based on the results of the analysis of citizens and organizations appeals indicating the existence of systemic social problems in the region, as well as based on the results of public oversight events and public debates of various socially significant problems with the involvement of a wide range of circle of social activists, nonprofit organizations, business, and authorities.

According to the 2023 ranking of civic chambers:

47 regional civic chambers implement control and observation activities;

71 regional civic chambers implement its own initiatives;

meetings of 73 regional civic chambers in 2022 attended heads of regions or their deputies;

in 69 regions of the Russian Federation, joint meetings of regional civic chambers and regional executive authorities were held.

Members of regional civic chambers form more than half of the composition of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, which ensures the representation of regional interests at the federal level and largely determines the agenda and tasks of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation in a variety of areas.

In order to increase the efficiency of the activities of regional civic chambers and assist an objective assessment of their activities, starting from 2020, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the rating agency RAEX-Analytics (RAEX) prepare a rating of regional civic chambers.

The idea of creating a rating was voiced over in 2019 at the “Community” forum during a meeting of forum participants with the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office, Sergei Kiriyenko, who supported this initiative.

The methodology in place for compiling the rating enables a comprehensive consideration of the institution of civic chambers as an effective tool for the development of civil society.

Rating model

Results of the rating of regional civic chambers 2023³¹⁸

Top three regional civic chambers:

• Ulyanovsk region,
• Vologda region, and
• Republic of Tatarstan (Tatarstan).

The top 10 also included

(in alphabetical order):

• Kaluga region,
• Krasnoyarsk region,
• Kursk region,
• Leningrad region,
• Novosibirsk region,
• Samara region, and
• Chelyabinsk region.

 

In August 2023, the Civic Chamber, in order to quickly inform the relevant commissions of regional civic chambers about the existing problems of citizens, launched a new public oversight tool that assists at working with citizens’ appeals in the telegram chat format – “The Resident is Always Right.” How it works: appeals that are received by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation are forwarded by chat administrators to the corresponding regional civic chamber, so that the problem can be quickly and efficiently worked out on the spot and, if possible, resolved with the involvement of the relevant regional authorities. Since the launch of the project, first successful results of solving citizens’ problems in various regions not be long in coming.^{319.1, 319.2}

Project “ZdravControl” – digital services for patients and public oversight of healthcare

An example of the implementation of the process of public oversight using modern digital services in the regions is the federal project “ZdravControl” launched in 2022 with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation, the Ministry of Health of Russia, Roszdravnadzor, the All-Russian Union of Patients, as well as regional healthcare authorities, and regional civic chambers.³²¹

The project consists of 218 medchats for prompt resolution of patient problems in 35 regions of Russia³²²

Medchat members are more than 400 ths. residents of Russian regions

6.3Institute of public councils under federal executive authorities, regional executive authorities and local governance bodies

Being a significant institution of civil society, public councils under federal executive authorities, regional executive authorities and local governance bodies perform consultative and advisory functions, and participate in the implementation of public oversight, which allows them to promote the consideration of the rights and legitimate interests of public associations, human rights, religious and other organizations in the public assessment of the activities of federal and regional executive authorities, and local governance.

On average, each region of the Russian Federation has created ~ 30 public councils under executive authorities, the number of which is about 10 people per council, excluding municipal councils. Thus, each region has on average up to 300 experts of the highest level engaged in work of public councils³²³

Since 2021, the Civic Chamber and the rating agency RAEX-Analytics (RAEX) have been forming a rating of public councils under federal executive authorities,³²⁴ which are run by the Government of the Russian Federation. Since the launch of the rating, its model has been continuously improved.

In 2023, the Civic Chamber held in-person and several correspondence discussions on the methodology for forming the rating of public councils, during which both public councils and federal executive authorities expressed their objections to and suggestions for further improvement of the methodology.

The third rating of public councils under federal executive authorities, generated using an improved methodology, was presented at the final “Community” forum in Moscow in November 2023.³²⁵

Group A. Leaders in the ranking of public councils under federal executive authorities in 2023³²⁶

• Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation (Minprirody of Russia);
• Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Education of Russia);
• Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Agriculture of Russia);
• Ministry of Construction and Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation (Minstroy of Russia);
• Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation (Mintrud of Russia);
• Federal Service for State Registration of Cadastre and Cartography of Russia (Rosreestr);
• Federal Service on Surveillance in Healthcare (Roszdravnadzor);
• Federal Service for the Supervision in Education and Science (Rosobrnadzor);
• Federal Service for Supervision of Transport (Rostransnadzor); and
• Federal Agency for Forestry (Rosleskhoz).

Monitoring conducted by the Civic Chamber showed that the annual publication of the rating had a mobilizing effect on the majority of rated public councils. Thus, to improve their activities, they began to focus on key rating indicators. One example of the positive dynamics of development and intensification of the activities of public councils under the federal executive authorities was the increase in the efficiency of interaction with the federal executive authorities on the consideration of socially significant bills in 2023.

Of note, the issues of forming public councils under federal executive authorities are regulated by relevant regulatory documents.

Thus, the formation of public councils under federal executive authorities, whose activities are managed by the Government of the Russian Federation, is implemented on a competitive basis. And the organizer of the competition is the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.

86% of councils in 2023 are working to review regulatory documents (in 2022 — 70%);

78% of councils indicated examples of regulatory documents which they processed (in 2022 — 50%).

73% of public councils reported that their proposals were accepted by the federal executive authority (in 2022 — 10%).

8% of public councils have a documented procedure for the council’s work with regulatory documents (in 2022 — 0).

At the same time, no uniform standards for the formation of public councils under government bodies at the regional and municipal levels are currently in place. Experts of the Civic Chamber note that in order to ensure the independence of civil society institutions from government bodies, it seems rational to develop unified recommendations for the formation of public councils at the regional and municipal levels, as well as to create a working group under the Civic Chamber that will monitor how these recommendations are being fulfilled. This decision was reached by the participants of the panel session “Public Councils under Regional Executive Authorities: Problems and Prospects”, held as part of the “Community” forum in the city of Vologda.³²⁷

6.4Public supervisory commissions

Public oversight over human rights in places of forced detention, implemented since 2008 by public supervisory commissions, is the most important area of public oversight, the social significance of which is hard to overestimate.

The Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, in accordance with Article 16 of the Federal Law No. 32-FZ “On the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation” dated April 4, 2005, participates in the formation of public supervisory commissions, suspension and termination of activities of their members, authorization of their members, and also assists PSCs in providing them with methodological materials and other documents that facilitate the implementation of the PSCs powers in the regions of Russia.

Public oversight over human rights in places of forced detention, including assistance to persons in places of forced detention, is a sensitive and complex area of activity, both from a psychological, moral and ethical point of view, and from an organizational, technical and financial point of view.

 

3 years are an PSC incumbency

Each region has one PSC, which operates within the territory of the corresponding regions of Russia.

From 5 to 40 personscompose a team of a regional PSC

The PSC is not a legal entity and operates on a permanent basis.

The implementation by members of PSCs of their powers entails financial costs, which, throughout the 15 years of existence of this institution of public oversight, until recently, has been practically not reimbursed in any way whatsoever. That is why often members spent their personal funds.

But in 2023, with the active involvement of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation and the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, this problem was resolved at the legislative level.

The Civic Chamber, as the body that shaping the PSCs, understands the high importance of the quality of selection of candidates for membership of the PSCs. That is why since March 2022, the Civic Chamber, to enhance the readiness of candidates, as well as to increase the level of awareness in society about an opportunity to become a member of the PSCs, has been implementing the project “Training Seminars for Candidates for New Positions in Regional Public Supervisory Commissions”.

In addition to regional training seminars for candidates for new PSCs compositions, working meetings with heads of territorial bodies of the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, regional prosecutor’s offices, executive authorities, and regional civic chambers, as well as regional Commissioners for Human Rights take place.

Training seminars of the Civic Chamber for candidates to new compositions of the PSCs in 2023 were held

in 25 regions of Russia

 

A long-awaited and breakthrough³²⁸ innovation of 2023 ensuring the rights of convicts and their resocialization resulted in the Federal Law No. 10-FZ “On Probation in the Russian Federation” dated February 6, 2023. This law was developed with the participation of the Civic Chamber, since for public supervisory commissions the issues of adaptation and resocialization of convicts are a point of interest as well.

Following the adoption of this law, during a meeting with the Minister of Justice, Konstantin Chuychenko, members of the Civic Chamber voiced a number of proposals for its further implementation. In particular, it was proposed to share the experience of the nonprofit sector of those regions where work on re-socialization and adaptation had been carried out even long before this federal law was adopted. Positive practices today may be seen in the Arkhangelsk, Kaluga, Chelyabinsk, and Krasnoyarsk regions, the city of Sevastopol, the Republics of Tatarstan and Crimea. Moreover, experts noted the importance of involving regional and municipal authorities in this work, which would be responsible for communication with federal structures.³²⁹

During 2023, the Commission of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation on Security and Cooperation with PSCs worked to assess the experience of introducing probation in the regions of Russia, studied the practices developed in the regions, and considered the problems they were faced with. During the regional “Community” forums³³⁰ and various working meetings with authorized persons³³¹ and representatives of civil society,³³² it was possible to draw attention to such issues as the role of PSCs and other public institutions in the implementation of this law, possible interdepartmental interaction, and neecessary public supervision over the implementation of the law on probation. All this enable the regions to be prepared when this law comes into force on January 1, 2024 and to find the most effective ways to adapt and re-socialize the convicts.

Another significant event in September 2023 to point out was the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Coordination Council under the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation for the Regional Public Supervisory Commissions, the Synodal Department of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) for Prison Ministry and the Council of Civic Chambers of Russia.³³³

This agreement was concluded to backup the rights of detainees to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, in order to ensure public oversight over the observance of human rights and freedoms in places of forced detention.

It seems that the widespread practice of concluding such agreements not only at the federal, but also at the regional level, including with representatives of other traditional faiths, will contribute to increasing the effectiveness of ensuring human rights in places of forced detention, including the right to freedom of religion, and their subsequent social integration.

Experts of the Civic Chamber note that further development and improvement of the system of public oversight in various spheres of society will help to form a civil legal consciousness, prevent and resolve social conflicts, increase the level of citizens’ trust in the government bodies, ensure transparency, inclusiveness and efficiency of their activities, as well as ensure close interaction between the state and civil society institutions.