Russia also anticipates that the conflict in Ukraine will be long. And so she wants to be prepared. The Duma (Lower House of the Russian Parliament) approved two bills on Wednesday so that the economy adapts to the needs of the army and the troops sent abroad do not suffer shortages.
The law amendments will allow the Government to effectively place companies that carry out defense contracts into a war economy by introducing “special measures”. Its goal would be to ensure “counter-terrorist and other operations outside the Russian Federation.” Among other aspects, companies will not be able to refuse to accept contracts with the army for the supply of goods or the provision of services.
“The burden on the defense industry has increased significantly. To ensure the supply of arms and ammunition, it is necessary to optimize the work of the military-industrial complex and the companies that are part of the cooperation chain,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said on Tuesday.
The initiatives were approved on Tuesday in first reading. Yesterday they were studied behind closed doors, due to their implications for national security, said the president of the Chamber, Viacheslav Volodin. Later, the two amendments received the approval of the deputies in a second and a third and final reading. Now they only need to pass the filter of the Federation Council (Upper House) and the signature of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for them to enter into force.
The approval comes four months after Russia began its military actions in Ukraine. On February 24, Putin ordered the armed forces to enter the neighboring country in what he called a “special military operation” to, as he declared, “liberate” the self-proclaimed pro-Russian republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, “denazify” and “demilitarize” Ukraine. Last Sunday, Russia considered the province of Luhansk completely taken after controlling its last population, Lisichansk. Now military hostilities are focused on the Donetsk province.
In the explanatory note to the bills, presented by the government of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on June 30, it is recognized that without “special measures” the Russian army may experience supply problems due to losses. “There is a greater short-term need to repair weapons and military equipment and provide logistical means,” he explains. That need can be met “if efforts are temporarily concentrated in certain sectors of the economy.”
According to Andrei Kartapolov, who chairs the Duma Defense Committee, “the amendments will contribute to increasing the efficiency of the supply of everything necessary to carry out their tasks to the armed forces.”
According to Borísov, the “special measures” will affect the main defense contractors. But it does not foresee the transition of all the capabilities of the economy to military needs, he assured, quoted by the Ría Nóvosti agency.
He assured that the initiative is especially important “now that Western countries as a whole are increasing their military presence on the border with Russia, increasing the pressure with sanctions and increasing the supply of weapons to Ukraine.” According to Borisov, the amendments will contribute “to a rapid achievement of all the objectives of the special military operation.”
The Government may also establish a special work regime in companies. That implies that its employees have to work overtime “beyond the duration of the established workday”, including working on weekends, at night or on vacation.
According to Mijaíl Tarasenko, a member of the Labor and Social Policy Committee, the government assured the deputies that these measures will be applied “compulsorily in coordination with union representatives through the Ministry of Labor.” Yuri Borisov had pointed out, for his part, that extra work will be paid additionally in accordance with Russian labor legislation. He also assured that it will not be on a large scale. For this reason, the second bill will amend the Russian labor code.
The measure “will make it possible to eliminate the deficit of specialists in various defense organizations to fulfill contracts,” explained the deputy prime minister.
