The maritime and inland transport section of the Expert Council for Transport at the State Duma Committee for Transport and Construction gathered for a session at the lower house of Russia’s parliament on February 6, 2019. Among participants in the session were head of the section Viktor Deryabkin, who is also member of the State Duma Committee for Transport and Construction and deputy of the United Russia faction; director of Russia’s Transport Ministry Department for State Policy in Maritime and Inland Transport Yuri Kostin, FSUE “Rosmorport” General Director Andrei Lavrishchev, heads of enterprises and organizations of the transport sector, as well as members of the Expert Council.

Viktor Deryabkin summed up the results of the 2018 work. He noted that throughout the reporting period the section exerted effort to improve Russia’s legislation, which regulates relationship in maritime and inland transport.

Members of the section discussed issues linked with the accident rate in transport and legislative initiatives on reducing criminal liability in inland transport and increasing administrative responsibility. Special attention was paid to the efforts aimed at optimizing supervision functions in maritime and inland transport.

The purpose of the section work is to work out proposals, recommendations, federal draft laws and amendments to federal laws. The participants in the session stressed the need to maintain close cooperation between the section’s experts and organizations and agencies in order to search for effective solutions to the problems that maritime and inland transport faces at the legislative level.

Based on the results of the session the participants prepared a draft plan of action for a spring session of the State Duma.