Glimpses of state thinking

 The State Duma appealed in court the cancellation of elections of mayorsState Duma deputies and opposition leaders from the regions disputed by the Constitutional Court of the local government reform that led, in their opinion, to the cancellation of the election of mayors and the destruction of the political independence of the major cities, reports "Kommersant".The request to the Constitutional Court of 90 deputies challenged the amendments to the laws "On general principles of local self-government in the Russian Federation" and "On some issues of formation of local self-government of municipal formations of the Irkutsk Region", the adoption of which in 2014 and 2015 mayoral election in Irkutsk have been replaced by his election to City Council from among the deputies.

The request was initiated by the deputies of the State Duma of the Irkutsk Region: member of the faction "United Russia" by ONF Anton Romanov and the candidate for governor of the region from the Communist Party, Sergei Levchenko. In their view, the reform of local government in violation of the Constitution, decisions of the COP and the European Charter of Local Self-Government has deprived the municipalities the possibility to choose their own way to the formation of local self-government bodies of the options provided for by federal law.This right has been transferred to regional legislative assemblies.Recall that in May 2014 the State Duma adopted amendments enabling regional authorities to abolish the direct election of mayors in major cities. In February 2015, amendments were introduced two new forms of appointment of heads of municipalities: local deputies from among its members or from the candidates proposed by the competition commission, which is formed equally governor and representative body of the municipality.Source: polit.ru