Dialogue between government and society is becoming an important factor of economic development as it aims at resolving a crucial problem – the problem of trust. In Russia, the dialogue mechanisms have been forming up since 2005. A key role here belongs to information and communication systems, with the number of their users rapidly increasing. However, it is only in Moscow and other large cities that the systems are now widely used.
In 2005, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation (CC) became the first entity dedicated to supporting interaction between the federal government and the civil society. The All-Russia People’s Front, founded in 2011 after the presidential election, has developed into an organisation engaging a large number of active citizens in joint work with public authorities. However, the ongoing changes in technology are forcing the government to look for new ways to ensure public integrity.
Federal Law No. 212-FZ On Public Control in the Russian Federation came into effect in August 2014. Its subjects include the federal, regional, and municipal civic chambers as well as public councils of federal agencies.
The following statistics were quoted at the concluding meeting of the Russian Civic Chamber’s fifth convocation in April 2017:
- There were 180 expert reviews of statutory acts, most of them at the consultation stage in the State Duma. Some of the Russian Civic Chamber proposals were considered while drafting the laws. The Russian Civic Chamber commissions processed over 80,000 letters.
- A relaunch of the Public Councils was started in order to make their work more efficient and independent. At that time, over 21 councils had been formed based on the new principles. The formation of another six councils was to be finalised, and yet another five were still to be formed.
The current government and society interaction tools are as follows:
- The Russian Government Programmes Portal http://programs.gov.ru/Portal. Contains information on 44 government programmes up to 2020 with regard to five main focus areas of the Russian government.
- Russia’s Open Data Portal http://data.gov.ru. Over 12,000 open data sets have been published since 2014, with 4,500 of them belonging to federal authorities.
- Russian Prosecutor’s Office General Crime Statistics Portal http://crimestat.ru (in beta-testing mode).
- Legal Information Portal http://www.pravo.gov.ru for official publication of all Russian statutory acts.
- State Procurement Portal http://zakupki.gov.ru. 1.5 million procurements for a total amount of RUB 8.5 trillion since the beginning of 2017; 16.6 million notices for a total amount of RUB 38.4 trillion since 2011.
- Draft Statutory Acts Federal Portal http://regulation.gov.ru, an official website with the information on preparation for and results of public discussion.
- Russian Budget System Unified Portal http://budget.gov.ru.
- Russian Public Initiative Portal https://www.roi.ru. In 2013 –2015 the Open Government experts reviewed 12 public initiatives with over 100,000 votes of verified users each.
- Single Verification Registry https://proverki.gov.ru.
- Your Control Public Services Quality Information and Analysis System https://vashkontrol.ru. Over 19.9 million services have been assessed, with over 109.5 million assessments made since April 2013. The government service quality satisfaction level is 95%.
- Digital Public Services Portal https://www.gosuslugi.ru.
- Regulatory Control Assessment http://orv.gov.ru. Public consultations with the business community, assessment of future impact and potential consequences of new draft laws; more than one third of over 4,600 opinions since 2012 is negative. 30–40% of the projects are considered to be excessive or expensive every month, in terms of their requirements to would-be business entities and the budget.
We are actively developing systems for interaction of Moscow residents and the city government:
- Moscow Mayor’s official website http://mos.ru registers over 250,000 visitors daily.
- Active Citizen Portal https://ag.mos.ru launched in 2015. Currently engages 1.6 million people; some 850 requirements of citizens have been met, with 1,600 voting sessions and 47 million opinions processed.
- Claim Collection System on Amenities, Municipal Economy, and Urban Services Efficiency http://gorod.mos.ru.