Parliamentary choice: the State Duma summed up the results of the autumn session

The autumn session of the State Duma has ended in Russia. In four months, the deputies adopted a draft three-year budget, toughened penalties for foreign agents and exempted officials from filing an annual income declaration. The parliamentarians paid special attention to the veterans of their military service: they were given free travel to hospitals and back in case of injury, and also offered to introduce tax benefits for their families. In total, in 2025, deputies adopted 588 laws, introducing more than a thousand into the State Duma. The main draft laws that will affect the lives of Russians are described in the Izvestia article.

New budget

December 23 was the day of the official closing of the autumn session of the State Duma. And although the deputies will continue to work in the regions until the 30th, the results of the parliamentary hearings were summed up at the last plenary session of the year. At the beginning, the leaders of the factions took the floor, after which the speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin spoke.

— Speaking about the results of the outgoing year, it should be emphasized that 588 federal laws were adopted in 2025. Moreover, 71% of them are direct—acting. This is the highest figure in recent times," he said.

If we recall that during the spring session, deputies adopted 354 laws, it turns out that over the past four months, another 234 have been added to the list. In total, 1,303 bills were submitted to parliament in 2025, 551 of which were submitted by State Duma deputies. Together with members of the Federation Council, parliamentarians presented 277 initiatives, while only senators presented 40. Another 264 bills were introduced by the government and 143 by regional legislative bodies.

Of the total number of initiatives adopted, 118 directly affected the economy. The most significant, of course, was the law on the three-year federal budget. Certain concerns were caused by tax adjustments. They should raise treasury revenues against the backdrop of sanctions, low oil prices, a cooling economy (projected GDP growth in 2026 is 1.3%) and a decrease in investment in it (by 0.5-1%).

As a result, following the Cabinet of Ministers, the deputies gave the go-ahead: from January 1, 2026, the standard rate of value-added tax (VAT) will increase from 20% to 22%. There is an opinion that such a decision may lead to an increase in retail prices for goods. Alexander Shokhin, the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, warned about this. On December 19, during the "Results of the Year", which were held in a direct line format, combined with a press conference, Vladimir Putin warned the government: tax changes should not create problems for the manufacturing business. Their goal is "to achieve a balanced budget, and this has generally been achieved thanks to the adoption of this decision." And the president stressed that the increase in value-added tax in Russia will not last forever.

Support for ITS participants

In 2025, the State Duma adopted 30 laws affecting self-defense, assistance to fighters, their families and friends, Vyacheslav Volodin said. In total, since 2022, the parliament has approved 154 initiatives in this area, which, in fact, is a separate legislation that is subject to adjustments from time to time by the State Duma. Earlier, during a meeting with the leaders of the State Duma factions, the president asked deputies to pay special attention to helping veterans of the special operation, adding that they would be the ones to replace the current generation of politicians.

In particular, during the autumn session, deputies adopted a bill that grants wounded soldiers the right to free travel by rail, air, water or road to the place of military medical examination and back. According to another approved bill, children of military personnel and employees of federal government agencies who have turned 18 will have all social benefits extended from the moment they graduate from school or college until September 1. Finally, the parliamentarians approved preferential housing for military personnel, including those discharged from service, who are raising a disabled child over the age of 18 who lives with him.

In the first reading, the State Duma also adopted a bill on tax benefits for families of ITS participants, including land and property fees. In addition, the parliamentarians took care of student families: in the first reading, they approved an initiative that obliges universities to allocate separate living quarters in dormitories for such couples.

Foreign agents and security

In the autumn, the deputies continued to improve the legislation concerning foreign agents. Now they can be prosecuted for a second violation, regardless of when they committed it. Prior to that, a criminal case was opened after three violations by foreign agents of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. Moreover, in two out of three cases they had to be involved within a year.

The adopted bill directly concerns the security sector, which toughened the punishment for sabotage by abolishing the statute of limitations for such crimes, and lowered the age of criminal responsibility for such crimes from 16 to 14 years.

"We are imposing penalties of up to life imprisonment for the organizers of subversive communities for the very fact of involving minors in this dangerous criminal activity," said Irina Yarovaya, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma.

Another law increased the criminal liability to 20 years in prison for desertion for former prisoners. For example, for the unauthorized abandonment of a military unit for a period of more than two days, but not more than ten, it is proposed to be punished with imprisonment from two to six years. And from three to eight, if the part is left from ten days to a month.

At the end of the year, a group of deputies led by Vasily Piskarev introduced bills that exempt officials and parliamentarians from the obligation to file income and property declarations annually. Now they must provide a report only when they enter the service, transfer from one department to another, or if they need to explain major acquisitions that exceed family incomes over the past three years. But this does not mean any relief for the deputies.

As Piskarev explained, instead, the Poseidon digital anti-corruption control system is being introduced, which allows "not to wait a year for an official to submit another declaration, but to conduct constant monitoring, promptly receiving information about any changes in his financial situation." At the same time, experts note that only special services will have access to information about the incomes of officials, while society loses the ability to control such information, because it becomes closed.