Former MP declared as foreign agent cannot work as aide to MP in Komi Republic

The four-member Communist faction in the Komi State Council failed to secure Viktor Vorobyov a job as an aide to a member of parliament. Previously, the Komi State Council had introduced a draft law banning citizens who have been convicted or charged as foreign agents from working as an aide to a deputy.

The draft law was opposed by Communist deputies, whose representative Nikolai Udoratin had a few weeks before petitioned to employ former deputy Viktor Vorobyov as an aide. In response, the speaker of the parliament had initiated a bill banning a foreign agent from working as an aide to a deputy. However, Nikolai Bratenkov, a representative of the Communist faction, said there were only two foreign agents in the republic and both were excellent professionals. “What, are they going to stage a coup? The law is abnormal when such restrictions are introduced. After all, they (foreign agents) help the deputy anyway, but without any official status,” Bratenkov explained. Other MPs, however, supported the bill proposed by the Speaker, with Valentina Zhideleva, for example, pointing out that foreign agents act in the interests of unfriendly countries.

“While on holiday, I visited my son, who is in his third year of military service. In the new territories, I saw what was happening in the Lugansk People’s Republic and in Ukraine, where battles were being fought a few kilometres away from us. Our boys are defending us together with you and preventing actions that could harm our country, so there is nothing to laugh at here, discussing foreign agents,” Zideleva stressed.

Vorobyov’s status

In November 2024, Viktor Vorobyov was deprived of his mandate because he failed to revoke his foreign agent status, which is possible under the law. Vorobyov was given the status of foreign agent in April 2022, because in 2021 a foreign fund had paid for his train ticket within the city of London. This was followed by several years of court cases, all of which ended in Vorobyov’s defeat.

In 2022, he was one of the few courageous members of the legislature to protest against the war on social media. In March 2022, the Komi People’s Deputies adopted a statement condemning Vorobyov’s actions: “Vorobyov used absolutely unacceptable statements about Russia, the President of the country and the Armed Forces in a video appeal. We consider Vorobyov’s statement to be a deliberate provocation aimed at dividing our society and undermining national security. He tramples on the sacred memory of our ancestors who brought us victory in the Great Patriotic War,” the statement reads.

Komi Communist Party

However, it is also noted that Vorobyov has never been and is not a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and openly promotes pro-Western views. In this context, the leaders of the other political groups are calling for Vorobyov’s dismissal as a traitor to the party’s ideals as the leader of the group.

“We all unconditionally support the course of our president and call for unity of all political forces in the country. We believe that the decisions of the Russian leadership will put an end to the war in Donbass, which has lasted for eight years and claimed thousands of lives. The decisions of the Russian leadership are aimed at establishing peace,” the MPs stressed in their statement.

In the State Council of the Komi Republic, the faction of the Communist Party of Russia was the only one whose deputies did not sign a petition in support of the Russian President’s special military operation in Ukraine.