RUSSIAN DEPUTY ANDREI SKOCH

EARLY YEARS AND THE BEGINNING OF ANDREI SKOCH’S CAREER

A.V. Skoch was born in 1966 in the Moscow region. He served in the Soviet army, and later received an education in psychology.

Andrei Skoch started his career not with politics, but with entrepreneurship. Initially, he created several projects together with his business partner Lev Kvetnoi, the pair later investing their earned capital in the Interfin company. In the second half of the 90s, the company began to invest in the metallurgical industry. Thus, Andrei Vladimirovich Skoch and his colleague received 40% of the shares of the Oskol Electrometallurgical Combine, and Skoch also took the post of a deputy general director of the enterprise as a representative of the parent company.

Subsequently, Andrei Skoch decided to choose another profession for himself. He became interested in politics, so he left the business world, entrusted his assets to his father Vladimir Nikitovich Skoch and took a new position – deputy of the Russian State Duma.

LEGISLATIVE CAREER

In 1999, Andrei Vladimirovich Skoch announced his candidacy for the post of deputy from the Belgorod region. He was supported by 54% of voters, and as a result he became a member of the State Duma of Russia of the III convocation.

Andrei Vladimirovich Skoch has said in many interviews that he understands what he lives for only when he helps those in need. The sincerity of this position is confirmed by the fact that for 20 years he had participated in the creation of numerous important legislative drafts. During this period, A.V. Skoch became a co-author of 150 legislative initiatives. In particular, thanks to him, “dacha amnesty” was extended until March 1, 2021, which allows for a simplified scheme to register ownership of country  houses, garages, baths, etc. Another law developed with the Skoch’s assistance was an amendment to article 20 of the Federal Law “On the Basics of protecting the health of citizens of the Russian Federation.” This article determines the right of citizens of the country to receive data on their own health, diagnosis, treatment and risks before giving their consent to any medical procedures.

Andrei Vladimirovich Skoch also participated in the creation of amendments:

• article 3 of the Federal Law “On the monetary allowance of military personnel and the provision of separate payments to them” touches on the issue of providing social support measures to the actual educators of military personnel;
• Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” on restricting access to internet materials containing scenes of animal cruelty;
• article 69 of the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” establishes requirements for the minimum level of higher education;
• the second part of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation on the launch of environmental investment projects in the land territories of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation.

In 2000, Andrei Vladimirovich Skoch was appointed head of the Expert Council on Metallurgy and Mining Industry. Having been re-elected to the State Duma of the IV convocation, he joined the United Russia (Edinaya Rossiya) party in 2007. Five years later, the deputy included the State Duma Committee on CIS affairs and relations with countrymen.

ANDREI VLADIMIROVICH SKOCH’S CHARITY PROJECTS: HEALTHCARE AND EDUCATION

Andrei Skoch’s desire to help others is expressed not only in his political activities, but also in his charity work. In 1996, he founded the Healthy Generation (Zdorovoe Pokolenie) Foundation to help sick children. After some time, the name of the foundation was changed to the Pokolenie (Generation) Foundation, and its areas of its support significantly expanded. However, medicine remains a priority area for the fund. Thus, the humanitarian organization regularly allocates millions of rubles for the purchase of medicines, various devices, wheelchairs and prostheses for medical institutions of  the Belgorod region, as well as for the treatment and rehabilitation of the individual patients. At the expense of the fund, 29 paramedic-obstetric stations and three clinics were opened in the region:

• an ophthalmological center ;
• a medical center;
• and a neuro-orthopedic center.

In addition, the Pokolenie Foundation helps veterans through veterans councils and organizations of social support of the population. The total financing for such projects is almost 250 million rubles.

The Foundation also supports education. For example, in 2002, it established the scholarship program “Best Student of the Year”, which is now implemented annually in the Belgorod region. In 2020, 400 people participated in the competition — 30 of them took the first and the second places in 15 nominations and thus received the scholarships in the amount of 15,000 and 10,000 thousand rubles respectively. The total amount of project financing comprised almost 90 million rubles.

The organization not only encourages the initiative of students, but also works with creative youth within the framework of the “New Generation” camp. There they are taught dance, acting, public speaking skills and much more. Since 2005, 25 such creative meetings have already been held. More than 55 million rubles were allocated for the implementation of the project.

In 2019, the politician founded an online educational platform “the Knowledge Foundation”, which publishes free courses for the Belgorod region’s residents; in 2020 he allocated 2.3 billion rubles for the construction and repair of social facilities in the region.