A package of anti-corruption amendments has been submitted to the State Duma that would allow some public officials to stop filing mandatory annual asset declarations. The initiative was introduced by lawmakers from all parliamentary factions, including Vasily Piskarev, head of the security and anti-corruption committee, and Vladimir Bulavin, who heads the Federation Council’s defense and security committee.
Under the draft, declarations would be required only when specific grounds arise, with filing due by April 30 of the following year. Piskarev says this would replace periodic reporting with continuous monitoring of changes in officials’ financial position.
The proposal relies on the state information system Poseidon, approved in spring 2022. The platform is linked to databases from multiple agencies, from Rosfinmonitoring to the Federal Tax Service; it is coordinated by the presidential administration and operated by the FSO.
Russia’s declaration system began taking shape in 1995, while full-scale disclosure for a broad range of officeholders was introduced under President Dmitry Medvedev in 2009. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, transparency receded: at the end of 2022 some categories were allowed not to report, and in 2023 publication of declarations on agency websites and in the media was suspended until the end of the “special military operation.”
Experts interviewed by the outlet dispute the claim that the new model would strengthen oversight. Andrey Zhvirblis, who heads the Deklarator service, says the operation of a closed system cannot be independently verified. Independent expert Ilya Shumanov adds that even if integrated with state registries, Poseidon can only detect assets formally owned by officials, while property registered to third parties may remain hidden.
The experts argue that public access to declarations is what allowed journalists and citizens to compare officials’ lifestyles with their stated incomes. The article cites investigations into foreign real estate owned by Russian officials, Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation film He Is Not Dimon to You, and later reporting on undeclared assets and use of state property through relatives, nominees, and affiliated entities.