Natalia Kostenko is known as a member of the president’s team. She is part of the main headquarters of the All-Russian Popular Front. He is a deputy of the State Duma of the 7th convocation. A professional journalist by profession and a political observer by vocation, she made her career in just two years, heading the ONF Journalists Legal Support Center, which is fighting the violation of freedom of speech. As a parliamentarian, she was remembered for initiatives to take measures that were aimed at solving the problems of people and the village. Since she herself comes from the Krasnodar Territory, she actively defends the rights of farmers. Collects appeals of citizens on issues of price regulation, medicine, education, housing and communal services.
The biography of the deputy
Natalia Kostenko was born in 1980. She was born in the Krasnodar Territory, in the small village of Malotenginskaya, which is located in the Otradnensky district. In 1998, she graduated from secondary school No. 18. She began to study at the journalism department at Kuban State University. While still a student, she simultaneously began working as a correspondent for the regional newspaper Kuban Today. Received a diploma in 2004.
Then the first successes came to her as a journalist. In 2004 she was awarded the Debut Prize awarded by the Union of Journalists of Russia.
Kostenko Natalya’s career went up sharply when in 2005 she received an invitation for cooperation from the federal socio-political publication Nezavisimaya Gazeta. She moved from Krasnodar to Moscow.
Work in Nezavisimaya Gazeta
At Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Natalya Kostenko dealt with political issues as an observer. She oversaw the topic of elections, as well as the activities of various political parties.
A new stage in her journalistic career began in 2008, when she got a job at the Vedomosti newspaper. Here, the heroine of our article began working as a parliamentary correspondent and entered the Kremlin pool. She regularly covered the activities and visits of the heads of government and the federal parliament.
Cooperation with ONF
In 2013, Natalia Kostenko was invited to the metropolitan institute, which specialized in socio-economic and political research. Immediately to the post of deputy director. In her work, she actively collaborated with the federal coordinating committee, which worked under the All-Russian Popular Front.
She began to be actively involved in the activities of the ONF, already in June they were included in the Central Headquarters. And since October, she began to oversee the activities of five thematic groups at once. And not only the central headquarters, but also the regional centers involved in public monitoring. She also led legislative activities of ONF activists who were deputies of the State Duma. At the same time, Natalia Kostenko is actively involved in the preparation of various events in which the head of the ONF, Vladimir Putin, is involved.
freedom of speech
In 2014, he became a member of the center for legal support of journalists at the All-Russian Popular Front. This institute was created following the results of the 1st media forum for regional independent media, which was called “Truth and Justice”.
In this position, Kostenko Natalya Vasilievna was noted by several resonant statements. For example, she claimed that the Center she led planned to create a so-called blacklist of officials. It was planned to include those servants of the people who regularly do not provide the media with the required information. Thus, directly violating the law.
Then Kostenko said that the Center’s activists are proposing to State Duma deputies and presidential administration officials that laws will be adopted that will officially increase fines and other penalties for government officials who violate the Media Law. It is in terms of failure to provide journalists with the required information. All officials who conduct activities that are closed to the public and the public will be blacklisted. This was promised by Kostenko Natalya Vasilievna. The biography of the heroine of our article was now closely associated with both journalism and politics.
Media support
As part of the activities of ONF, events were organized aimed at supporting the media at all levels. So, in 2015, a webinar was held in which journalists from 100 independent publications from all over Russia took part. At it, competent specialists were able to give detailed answers about participation in tenders aimed at covering the activities of authorities in the media. Moreover, real examples were given of how to oppose officials who are actively using financial levers of pressure on the free press.
Natalya Kostenko, in whose biography there was a section related to the protection of media rights, claimed that certain officials in the regions and at the federal level use the money allocated to the media against journalists. In their hands, they become an element of pressure, with the help of which they push their point of view onto print pages and screens of controlled television channels.
As an example, Kostenko cited cases when a certain publication won a tender, for example, for 100,000 rubles. And because of this, it turned out to be in a situation where representatives of the administration directly forbade them to post critical materials, even to make hints in their articles that might not be approved by local officials. If the publication adhered to the principle and still issued material criticizing the government, then officials made attempts to terminate the agreements with such editorial offices for far-fetched reasons and not to deal with them in the future. Moreover, these were not all elements of the impact on the free press.
Farmers Rights
Kostenko Natalia Vasilievna, whose dossier contains information about her birth in the Krasnodar Territory, throughout her career actively defended the rights of local farmers and entrepreneurs. For example, in 2016, she helped the Krasnodar ONF branch to stand up for local agricultural producers. They complained about violations in the sphere of land turnover. And also gave specific examples of cases of raider seizures of plots and even harvested by peasants.
Kostenko noted that in such a situation, the problem of import substitution can never be solved. After all, farmers have to spend too much time and effort to defend their truth in government offices and courtrooms. And they could spend it on cultivating land and harvesting. The Krasnodar branch of the ONF then called for the immediate establishment of order in the field of land use.
The results of this action were an official appeal addressed to the head of the RF IC Alexander Bastrykin, which contained a request to pay close attention to the farmers' massive complaints about harassment.
Map of violations of the rights of journalists
In 2016, the Kostenko team presented a map of harassment of journalists in the regions. This happened at the media forum of independent and regional media, the organization of which was initiated by the All-Russian Popular Front. It was called "Truth and Justice."
The heroine of our article noted that while statistics on violations related to freedom of speech improved. Earlier, representatives of newspapers and television channels actively complained about the regular violation of their rights and freedoms. At the same media forum, appeals were mainly related to systemic issues that require legislative intervention. One of the reasons for reducing cases of violation of freedom of speech is the active work in this area of various public organizations. Including the All-Russian Popular Front. Largely due to their influence, the problem was brought to the national level.
Political career
In the spring of 2016, Kostenko made an important decision in her life. She decided to seriously engage in a political career. Therefore, she registered as a member of the preliminary vote of the political party "United Russia". The aim of the primaries was to select candidates for deputies of the State Duma from the Krasnodar Territory.
As she herself admitted, participating in this project was an interesting and rewarding experience. Especially considering the fact that she decided to go to the State Duma. This allowed candidates to compete among themselves and determine which of them would be the strongest. It is also an opportunity to gain positive experience, draw fresh ideas that can help not only in the upcoming election campaign, but also in future work.
State Duma Elections
During the preliminary vote, Kostenko took second place, gaining a little less than 39% of the vote. The victory in the primaries was won by the current chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the region Vladimir Beketov, for which more than 70% of voters voted.
Despite this, she took part in the vote, following which Natalia Kostenko became a deputy of the State Duma. In the federal parliament, she passed from her native region. Now Natalya Kostenko is a People’s Deputy who seeks to solve the problems of a particular region.