United Russia presented a new package of social initiatives aimed at combating the consequences of the pandemic and supporting citizens. Representatives of the party's volunteer centers voiced them at the first Social Online Forum, which United Russia held on Monday, December 14. This is stated in the message of the party.
President Vladimir Putin took part in the event. Addressing the forum participants, he noted that for United Russia, as the most massive party, volunteering, everyday work in these months next to people is an opportunity to evaluate who is worth what, who works from the heart, and who is for show.
He called it extremely important that United Russia "got involved in overcoming the difficulties faced by the country." “What is being heard now, is being worked out, is extremely important for maintaining the prestige of the leading political force in the country. The party, on whose decisions the country's economy, the state of the health care system, and education depend, always has a special responsibility for the results of the work of the state. This is a very big load. It must be confirmed by a sincere desire to do better for the country as a whole and for a specific person,”the president emphasized.
The chairman of United Russia Dmitry Medvedev noted that volunteering is an extremely important area of the party's work. From the very beginning of the pandemic, United Russia has created volunteer centers in each region, they unite 80 thousand activists. The chairman of the party outlined the priorities for the further development of volunteerism - this is car volunteering, assistance to doctors and their families, delivery of medicines to outpatients. Dmitry Medvedev also instructed United Russia to monitor the implementation of anti-pandemic measures in the regions.
During the forum, the participants exchanged the best regional practices in providing assistance to citizens and doctors. Their experience, among other things, formed the basis for a package of new social initiatives of the party. In particular, the "United Russia" proposed to extend a number of temporary measures, which were adopted at the very beginning of the pandemic - their period expires on December 31. We are talking about an unannounced procedure for providing subsidies for paying for housing and communal services and extending a 30 percent discount on payment of duties through State Services. The initiative was voiced by the secretary of the Chuvash branch of the party, State Duma deputy Alena Arshinova. Vladimir Putin called both proposals "timely and fair."
Also, "United Russia" proposed to simplify the requirements for pharmacies when selling OTC drugs online. The initiative was voiced by the secretary of the Khabarovsk party, an activist of the volunteer center Maxim Ivanov. “Only entrepreneurs with a network of more than 10 pharmacies and a special Internet site can obtain a permit for such activities. Not everyone can afford it. As a result, many residents of small towns and municipalities were deprived of the opportunity to buy medicines without a prescription online, since district pharmacies simply cannot obtain permission for such activities,”he said. The head of state supported this initiative - he said that he would instruct the government to consider this issue.
The party also proposed introducing an unclassified procedure for receiving disability pensions and extending the validity of expired passports and driver's licenses.
A large block of initiatives contained additional protection measures for those who face the risk of infection in their daily work. A volunteer from Bashkiria, Yakov Kugubaev, offered to insure non-medical hospital staff against coronavirus.“First of all, we are talking about specialists who are responsible for the stable operation of life support systems, oxygen and other equipment,” he said.
The same applies to insurance of teachers at workplaces - an activist of the party's volunteer center in the Altai Territory, Denis Goloborodko, stressed that schoolchildren are without personal protective equipment in class and are not required to provide a certificate of the absence of coronavirus disease. Because of this, the risk of getting sick among teachers is high. By decision of the regional authorities, teachers in the Altai Territory are already insured. The volunteer offered to expand the practice throughout the country.
Both initiatives were supported by Vladimir Putin. He noted that the issues are really urgent, and they need to be worked out. Secretary of the General Council of "United Russia" Andrei Turchak, in turn, said that "United Russia" together with the government agreed with two large taxi units - from December 21 to On December 31, 2021, in 13 regions of the country, their cars will deliver doctors home, to work and to call patients free of charge.
Also, Andrei Turchak proposed to make a free electronic digital signature and expand the scope of its application. According to him, this is one of the ways to solve the problem when there is no way to complete transactions and contracts offline due to the pandemic.
“We believe that, taking into account the current circumstances, the electronic digital signature can and should be applied much more broadly. We propose to secure the possibility of obtaining it free of charge - today it costs citizens an average of one and a half thousand rubles. We propose to make it free for all confirmed users of the State Service portal,”said Andrei Turchak. He noted that the party will work out the necessary drafts of normative acts, and will implement the initiative together with the Ministry of Digital Science.
Another block of United Russia initiatives is aimed at overcoming the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic. For example, the party proposed to involve senior students of teacher training colleges in the paid replacement of teachers in the classroom in schools. Teachers can take sick leave - but the educational process cannot be interrupted. Also, the party considers it necessary to expand the possibilities of using maternity capital in socially important areas - for example, to pay for private kindergartens, which are registered as individual entrepreneurs and, according to the law, cannot work with maternity capital certificates.
It is proposed to introduce additional measures to support pregnant women - an additional payment to the maternity allowance, which can be obtained by registering with an antenatal clinic at an early date. Now it is about 600 rubles. The party proposed to increase the amount of the allowance and at the same time to make such assistance targeted. In addition to this, "United Russia" proposes to maintain payments for the loss of a breadwinner to minors when working on vacation. -19 - including financial.
“All ideas deserve to be worked out. Together with colleagues from the government, the State Duma, the regions, we will thoroughly work them out. Obviously, some of these solutions will require additional funds. But these are important initiatives. Let's carefully calculate all this and come out with the final legislative initiatives. This will be the responsible behavior of our party,”summed up the initiatives that were discussed at the social online forum, Dmitry Medvedev.
The chairman of the party called on all members of "United Russia" to actively work on New Year's holidays. “I am asking you to work honestly and actively on these New Year's days, when a very large number of people may need our help. This is the responsibility of the ruling party. And I would ask everyone to remember this,”Dmitry Medvedev said.