Duma Bingo analyzes lobbying practices in the Russian parliament and advocates regulation of lobbying in Russia. The project’s website features an interactive map that allows users to trace the influence of various groups on the lawmaking process.

At present, lobbying – defined as the promotion of the political interests of individuals or organized groups – remains unregulated by Russian law, which makes it difficult to assess its scale and impact. In 2010, experts estimated the size of this “market” at several hundred million dollars.

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian MPs have increasingly adopted laws with hundreds of sponsors (informally known as “mass graves”) in a demonstration of political unity and loyalty to the Kremlin’s course. Some bills are passed so quickly that not all MPs have time to review them. For these reasons and others, the Duma has earned the nickname the “mad printer.”

Non-United Russia MPs often introduce populist initiatives designed to attract media and public attention, but they rarely become law. One of the reasons is that the bills are poorly written. The report’s authors say the actual goal may be to raise the visibility of a party or individual members, or both.

Most bills considered by the Duma receive little media attention, and as political scientist Ekaterina Shulman notes, discussion of them takes place behind the scenes of plenary sessions. This lack of transparency, combined with no formal rules regulating lobbying, enables MPs to advance the interests of particular groups without accountability to the public.

The definition of lobbying used by Duma Bingo involves three actors: an object (a politician), a subject (an interested individual or group) and a lobbyist as an intermediary. However, due to the lack of relevant data, it is impossible to trace the relationships between these actors or determine the mechanisms of their interaction, such as whether the passage of certain bills is a condition for payment to the politician advancing them. Moreover, in some cases, the process does not involve three actors – some MPs advocate their own businesses.

According to Duma Bingo, half of the initiatives that became law in the current Duma contained signs of lobbying, while 65% of MPs promoted bills tied to the interests of particular groups. MPs are most often affiliated with industry groups. The report’s authors identified more than 40 sectors whose interests were being advanced by MPs. Agriculture was the most common (25 MPs), followed by health care, sports, tourism and construction/development (19 MPs each).

In addition, 86 MPs lobby the interests of Russia’s regions in parliament, with the largest number lobbying for occupied Crimea (eight). Forty-six MPs have introduced initiatives related to major industrial companies, like Russian Railways (six), Rostec (three) and Metalloinvest (two). Sociopolitical groups are the least represented in the current Duma (only 30 MPs). The Russian Orthodox Church punches above its weight, with seven MPs lobbying its interests.

Since United Russia holds almost three fourths of the seats in the Duma, it controls the lawmaking process. Of the initiatives proposed by MPs of other parliamentary parties that were not supported by United Russia members, only 5% became law. As a result, United Russia MPs are the focus of lobbying activity, and signs of lobbying are present in 53% of United Russia’s initiatives. Duma Bingo notes that three of four lobbying initiatives originate from United Russia representatives or interparty groups in which they participate. Among the non-United Russia parties in parliament, the share of such initiatives ranges from 8% (New People, created in 2020) to 14% (the LDPR). 

The report’s authors compiled a ranking of the lobbying influence of individual MPs, assessing each’s ability to turn a lobbying initiative into law. The top 20 MPs are almost all from United Russia, the only exceptions being Just Russia MP Alexander Aksakov (15th) and LDPR MP Andrei Lugovoi (18th).

Eight of the top 10 promote the interests of the Kremlin. Six of them work to advance the interests of the so-called siloviki. According to Duma Bingo’s estimates, 67 MPs promote the interests of security institutions in parliament. The Ministry of Defense has the largest number of lobbying MPs (24), followed by Roskomnadzor (13) and the FSB (10).

In its conclusion, Duma Bingo cites data from pollster VTsIOM showing that 42% of Russians do not believe their interests are represented in parliament. At the same time, almost the same share say the opposite, VTsIOM claims. However, the lack of regulation around lobbying in Russia makes it impossible to fully assess the influence of particular groups on the lawmaking process and on the protection of voters’ interests.