Good advice: Matvienko told Putin about the record number of bills

The Federation Council has introduced a record number of bills in its entire history: almost 200 initiatives were presented in the spring session. This became known at a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Speaker of the upper house of Parliament Valentina Matvienko. The bills mainly concerned the support of military personnel and their families, as well as the social sector in general. The plans include further work on the formation of a regulatory framework for marketplaces, support for student families and the creation of new benefits for children. The President praised the senators' work. Political scientists believe that the Federation Council has managed to become a chamber that meets both regional and federal interests. Moreover, its members can be called "arbitrators" in relation to the federal center and the subjects. How the last plenary session of the senators went is in the Izvestia article.

What was the discussion about in Sofeda on the last day of the session

The spring session of the Russian Parliament has officially ended: on July 25, the Federation Council held its last plenary session, which traditionally lasted for four hours. The senators left the consideration of a whole galaxy of high—profile initiatives for last, from the denial of a rental certificate for films with signs of discrediting traditional values and the marketplace law to fines for transferring a subscriber number and the introduction of responsibility for searching for extremist materials on the Internet. The senators also actively discussed the latest initiative, or rather the most resonant part of the package of amendments to impose a fine of up to 5,000 rubles for searching for extremist content. The parliamentarians had many questions about the authors of the law: in particular, the possible risks of abuse in law enforcement or ways to check whether the search for materials was intentional.

— We can make a serious remark to the Ministry of Finance that such laws that affect attract public attention and require serious information explanation to citizens and society, — said Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko.

As a result, the senators actually unanimously adopted the initiative, but asked the Prosecutor General to keep this issue under control. Earlier, Vladimir Putin was also interested in this law. At one of the meetings, he asked the head of the Ministry of Finance, Maksut Shadaev, to tell in detail about the principles of the tightening measures.

Despite the fact that the session was as intense as ever, the work was carried out in a calm mode, and there were no force majeure, said the chairman of the Federation Council. At the same time, the legislative activity of senators continues to grow, the Federation Council considered 355 laws during the spring session. In total, they have introduced almost 200 legislative initiatives: this is a record number in the history of the Federation Council. For comparison, for the whole of 2024, members of the upper house drafted 320 bills, 140 of which became federal laws.

— The Upper House solved priority tasks in terms of structural changes in the Russian economy and addressing social issues. Indeed, there are a lot of such questions. As far as I know, there are 190 bills, besides the fact that you approved the laws that passed through the Duma, through the lower house, another 195 bills were submitted by members of the upper house to the State Duma. Therefore, this very extensive work was and still is positive. I want to thank you and all the senators for this," Vladimir Putin said.

There have been successes not only on legislative grounds, but also in the international arena. Speakers from Bahrain, Pakistan, Somalia and Uganda took part in this session from the rostrum of the Federation Council. A landmark event was the address of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko in March 2025.

Senators' plans for the autumn session

The senators' focus is primarily on supporting soldiers of a special military operation and their loved ones. Now, for example, one of the family members can accompany a wounded soldier to a place of treatment and rehabilitation. Legislative support for the integration of the reunified territories of Donbass and Novorossiya has almost been completed: 99 laws have been adopted in total. At the same time, of all those approved in this session, almost a third are socially significant initiatives.

— And it is important that not a single social obligation to our citizens has been violated. Indexation is regularly carried out in accordance with inflation, additional measures are being introduced, especially for families with children, and more than a third of the laws reviewed during the spring session were adopted in the interests of our citizens," Valentina Matvienko clarified.

Improving demographic indicators remains one of the important priorities of the authorities. Valentina Matvienko did not go into details about which laws and support measures had been approved, referring to regular reports to the president on this topic. However, she preferred to draw Vladimir Putin's attention to a certain category of Russians — student families. Last week, the country's first All-Russian Festival of Student Families was held at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University Congress Center.

— You mentioned one of the most important problems is the late birth of children, at the age of 28-29. And we consider it very important to focus on student families. Together with the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Education, together with the rector's community, we have worked out such irreducible standards of support for student families, which cannot be lower, and higher would be welcome. This means a separate university allowance for moms, separate rooms in dormitories for families, mother and child rooms so that mom can go to a lecture," said the speaker of the Federation Council.

The Federation Council, for example, has already approved a law to increase maternity benefits for undergraduates and graduate students by almost four times. Moreover, the concept of a "student family" has now been introduced: This creates a legal basis for further support of this category of citizens. "By the way, what pleases: Last year, the number of student families increased by 17%," Matvienko said.

Now the senators are planning to create a certificate for children in sports sections for the autumn session — the so—called "young athlete card". This will allow us to solve two tasks at once: to estimate how many children actually play sports, and to try to solve the issue of its commercialization so that children from all families can attend sports clubs. Also, the upper house of parliament has already prepared a draft law regulating cadet education: 152 such institutions have been created today, which require separate regulation.

— We have already approved the plan for the autumn session, Vladimir Vladimirovich, it will also be intense. The mood in the team is good. I am very pleased with how the senators treat the case and their regions. And you know, such a good, professional team of the Chamber of Regions," said Valentina Matvienko.

The fate of the package of laws on marketplaces

One of the tasks for the next session will be the formation of a modern regulatory framework for marketplaces. Russia is one of the few countries in the world that has created its own world—class digital platforms. The time has come to regulate this area, says Valentina Matvienko. So, at the last plenary meeting, the Federation Council approved a package of laws that will now regulate the operation of all digital platforms that accept payments for goods or services from customers. "Of course, he is being criticized, everyone is unhappy with him, but we accepted him based on the fact that this is like the first "approach to the shell", this is the beginning," she stressed.

— The formation of a regulatory framework for marketplaces is a process that will take time and thought. I think the main thing is not to do any harm. These are services that are very convenient for people, and they are economically very important. Therefore, we will act carefully. In this package of laws that we adopted, the first one, we took an active part, our relevant committees, Vladimir Vladimirovich, made many comments, almost all of them were taken into account, but there is still a large field of work ahead," the speaker of the Federation Council believes.

Earlier, she held a large press conference, where she said that parliamentarians would continue their work in the field of regulating the platform economy in the autumn session, as it was necessary to work to eliminate the imbalance between traditional and online commerce.

The influence of the Federation Council and Matvienko

Today, the status of Russian senators is being transformed in the country from regional lobbyists to arbitrators of relations between the federal center and the subjects, political scientists believe. The Federation Council manages to be a chamber that consolidates regional and federal interests on the national agenda, and in part, this happened thanks to the figure who has been heading the chamber for almost 15 years — Valentina Matvienko.

— In fact, she embodies an example of a woman's success in modern Russian politics. In addition, Matvienko is also distinguished by an economic approach to the workplace. The interiors of the upper house of Parliament have been transformed in recent years, and a new building has been built. The Federation Council today, unlike the buildings of the State Duma, has a more presentable appearance for receiving international delegations. In fact, she became the architect of restoring the greatness of the Senate as a legislative body, which it was in tsarist Russia," says political analyst Pavel Sklyanchuk.

Dmitry Orlov, head of the Agency for Political and Economic Communications (APEC), notes the speaker's constant activity in curbing many populist initiatives launched by various political players, while she remains a master of proactive agenda formation. Matvienko has repeatedly confirmed that she is aware of the problems "on the ground." For example, she said that she reads social media before business trips to the regions. The senator does not drop out of the agenda: at the last meeting before the meeting with the president, speaking about the support of domestic manufacturers, she spoke about the sharp popularity of the Lububu toy, photos of which flooded the Internet for almost a month. The statement of the Speaker of the House was immediately replicated:

— Now a businessman from China has developed a doll, I think it's called a Laboo. Ugly, impossible to look at, but the whole world is sick of this doll. Everyone carries this doll on their bags, it's fashionable, it's stylish, they get it there in I don't know what ways.

She called for the creation of original products in Russia that can become fashion trends on the international market.

The Speaker of the upper house today deservedly occupies one of the key places in the political system, due to which he enjoys authority and influence to solve national problems, Pavel Sklyanchuk concluded.