Work in the 6th State Duma
In December 2011, Gudkov was elected to the 6th State Duma at the head of the list of "A Just Russia" from the Ryazan and Tambov regions, where the party gained 15% and 6% respectively (compared to 13% in the country). During his mandate, Gudkov worked in the Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, and individually and as part of a group of deputies, initiated 43 legislative drafts, including:
Amendments to the law "On Science and State Science and Technology Policy", proposed together with Ilya Ponomarev and Oleg Smolin in June 2014, and suggesting academic degrees to be revoked regardless of the time of its conferral if plagiarism is found in scientific works of the author. The bill was considered and rejected in the first reading in January 2015.
Amendments to the law "On Special Economic Measures" and Article 8 of the Federal Law "On Security", proposed together with Sergei Doronin, Valery Zubov, Sergey Petrov and Mikhail Serdyuk, suggesting the introduction of a mandatory form of federal law for decisions on economic sanctions (at that time the President's order was enough to impose economic sanctions). The initiative was criticized by representatives of all parliamentary parties, and in May 2017 the bill was rejected in the first reading.
Amendments to the legislative acts regulating the activities of non-profit organizations, introduced in July 2015 and involving the abolition of the concept of "foreign agent" in relation to NGOs. In the commentary to the bill, Gudkov noted that many of the organizations included in the corresponding register did not meet the formal criterion - they were not engaged in political activity. The bill was repeatedly postponed, and in May 2016 the amendments were rejected. In parallel with that, the State Duma approved the amendments prepared on behalf of President Vladimir Putin, which cleared the definition of political activity by separating it from work in the field of science, culture, art, health and health care, social services, support and protection, protection of motherhood and childhood, social support of the disabled, promotion of healthy lifestyle, physical culture and sports, protection of plant and animal life and charitable activities.
The Federal Law "On the Election of Deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation", drafted together with the Committee of Civil Initiatives, was introduced in October 2015 and suggested the transition to a mixed-member proportional representation according to the German model and the introduction of multi-mandate constituencies and electoral blocks in the Duma elections. In November 2015 the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building rejected the bill till it was improved.
No legislative draft, which was suggested by Gudkov or together with him, was adopted, except for the "mass" (signed by a large number of deputies) bill "On Amendments to the Federal Law "On Computation of Time" (a permanent shift to winter time), adopted in July 2014. Also, Gudkov was one of the eight deputies of the State Duma who in December 2012 voted against the federal bill "On Sanctions for Individuals Violating Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms of the Citizens of the Russian Federation", better known as "Dima Yakovlev Law" because it prohibited adoption of Russian orphans by US citizens. Also, Gudkov was among 4 deputies who did not vote for the law "On Admitting to the Russian Federation the Republic of Crimea and Establishing within the Russian Federation the New Constituent Entities of the Republic of Crimea and the City of Federal Importance Sevastopol". Later, while on air at the TV Rain channel, Gudkov explained that he abstained from voting "for" because of the political and economic consequences of the decision and abstained from "against" because of the conflicting public opinion on the question of joining the Crimea to the Russian Federation and out of respect for the inhabitants of the Crimea.
