Why the Duma Is Booking Hotels for Its Next Convocation

The apparatus of Russia's State Duma has opened a state procurement for hotel rooms for newly elected deputies of the ninth convocation who do not have housing in Moscow. The contract's initial price is 189.15 million rubles, and the technical specification requires a hotel of at least four stars located within Moscow's Third Ring Road, with rooms no lower than first category. Up to 200 rooms can be used, and all of them must be in the same hotel.

The contract would run from September 20, 2026 to April 9, 2027. Food and other paid services would be the deputies' own expense, and rooms adapted for people with disabilities must be available. Continuous stay in one room is limited to three months and seven days, with early departure allowed, and no penalties should apply if a request is cancelled.

The tender, however, was declared void: only one bid was submitted, so the supplier selection did not take place under the state procurement law. Vedomosti has asked the Duma's press service whether a new tender will be published. Under Article 34 of the law on the status of senators and Duma deputies, lawmakers without Moscow housing are entitled to official housing within three months of assuming their mandates; until then, they receive hotel rooms and must vacate them within seven days of being given the housing.

A similar contract preceded the 2021 elections, when the initial price was 180.45 million rubles and the winner was OOO Mospromstroy Hotel Management. Deputies were then housed in a four-star Holiday Inn at rates from 3,929 to 7,241 rubles a night.

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What the Failed Tender and the 2021 Precedent Reveal

A failed tender, not a cancelled need

The fact that only one company bid for a contract worth up to 189.15 million rubles suggests the requirements — four stars, inside the Third Ring Road, up to 200 rooms in one building and a maximum of 9,750 rubles a night — narrowed the field. That is an interpretation; the verified fact is that the procedure was declared void. Since the contract period starts on September 20, the Duma apparatus will most likely have to reissue the procurement if it wants rooms in place by then.

The 2021 precedent puts the deadline problem in focus

Hotels are only a temporary solution. The law gives deputies three months to receive service housing, and the previous transition shows the process has not always run cleanly. After the eighth convocation began in October 2021, Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin asked faction leaders to ensure deputies from the earlier convocation vacated their service flats, and in November 2021 Vedomosti reported that nine deputies had still not left and relatives were living in 17 service apartments. For the ninth convocation, the same enforcement risk could delay the move from hotel rooms into official housing.

The higher room cap does not mean higher spending yet

The starting price is roughly 8.7 million rubles above the 2021 contract's initial price, and the 9,750-ruble per-night maximum is well above the 3,929–7,241-ruble range reported for the Holiday Inn arrangement. Moscow hotel rates have risen since 2021, so the higher cap is unsurprising. Actual spending will depend on how many deputies use rooms and for how long; the maximum of 200 rooms is a ceiling, not a forecast.

What to Watch After the Duma Hotel Tender Collapsed

The immediate follow-ups are narrow and concrete:

  • The failed tender means the Duma apparatus must either rerun the procurement or use another legal route; with the contract period due to begin September 20, a new notice on the state procurement information system can be expected before then.
  • Watch whether incoming deputies without Moscow housing move out of hotels within seven days of receiving service flats — the 2021 episode suggests this deadline has not always been enforced.
  • If a new tender keeps the 9,750-ruble room cap, the maximum contract value remains 189.15 million rubles for the full September-April period.