In a bid to promote legislative ideas and suggestions from Russian citizens, the Information Democracy Foundation (IDF), a government sponsored non-profit, last week launched the beta version of the Russian Public Initiative (RPI), a web platform inspired by the US “We the People” online petition system.
“The implementation of RPI is the next step in the evolution of information democracy in this country, drawing upon earlier moves enabling e-government, ‘web elections’ and other projects,” said IDF president and former minister of telecommunications Ilya Massukh.
A citizen initiative must collect at least 100,000 online votes over a 12-month period to be selected by legal experts (from Moscow’s Inconsult law firm, according to the IDF) for further consideration by the federal government and then by the State Duma (the lower chamber of parliament).
Online registration required
Adult citizens registered at the Common Government Services Portal of the Russian Federation – an e-government arm used for rendering government and municipal services in electronic format, with which the RPI website is interlinked – can already try out the new platform. And they are doing just that: as of April 11 – ten days after the launch of the RPI – 227 federal legislation initiatives had been posted for voting.
Two of those came in the first minutes of the portal’s operation, according to Massukh. One suggests to soften the legislation on blood alcohol content limits for Russian drivers. It is the most popular topic, with more than 3,220 votes to date.
Between now and November 1, Russia’s regions and municipalities will be gearing up to embrace the interactive technology so that their constituents will be able to introduce local legislative initiatives as well.
The modus operandi will be fully transparent, the IDF has indicated. Both legislation initiators and voters will be required to disclose their identity. For registered users of the Services Portal this is done automatically. Others may opt to join in the process by entering their login – the user’s pension insurance card number – and a password obtained from government agencies or Rostelecom, Russia’s national telecom operator.
Rostelecom and Russian Post were the two bidders defeated by IDF in early March at a tender for administration rights for the RPI website.
Under Kremlin control
“This platform is undeniably a step towards e-democracy,” said lawmaker Ilya Ponomarev in an exchange with East-West Digital News. “It goes further than the Russian constitution, under which legislative initiative rests with lawmakers, the government and the president.”
A member of the opposition party “A Just Russia,” Ponomarev first came up with the idea of a Russian analog of the “We the People” system during the 2011 legislative campaign. He took an active part in its preparation but still has reservations about the final outcome of the project.
“How the mechanism will function in practice remains unclear,” he said. “Internet users will vote for an idea or general principles, but the meaning of either may be significantly altered when translated into precise law texts.”
The key question here is who will be in charge of this translation: “While our initial idea was that citizen initiatives be processed by the parliament, it turns out that they will be left in the Kremlin’s hands. The IDF is de facto controlled by the presidential administration, with a former minister at its head,” noted Ponomarev.
‘Partly free’ and multi-dimensional
The Russian Internet has been described as “partly free,” and the past two years have seen several web-based e-government initiatives that demonstrate its complex and multi-dimensional nature.
Last year a $150 million cloud-based platform was put together to help the Russian government interact with citizens and businesses while improving links between levels of government command.
Some private, bottom-up initiatives have also aimed to offer indigenous web-based ways of making the government heed people’s pleas and open up for closer communication.
Among these is Alyona Popova’s Gov2People, an online platform for startups interested in civic activism and government accountability issues. The site links citizens with the e-government program, offering complaint forms and even forwarding them to the municipal authority in charge – and then following up to determine whether problems have been resolved.
Another private initiative, Yopolis, is a social network for on-the-go citizens who believe that government must be interactive and held accountable.
Maxim Nogotkov, a Russian Forbes-listed businessman and the founder of Yopolis, presented his project as a “vehicle to campaign for everything from putting street benches in your locality to altering legislation” – without fear of government reprisals for being active on the web.
Ponomarev has taken part in both Gov2People and Yopolis projects.
