Constitution of the Russian Federation

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Constitution at the inauguration of Dmitry Medvedev

The Constitution of the Russian Federation was adopted by referendum on December 12, 1993 and entered into force on December 25 of the same year, the day its text was published in the Official Gazette of Rossiyskaya Gazeta . It replaced the Soviet constitution from 1977 .

One of the authors of the constitutional text was Viktor Leonidowitsch Scheinis , who named Sergei Sergejewitsch Alexejew , Anatoly Alexandrovich Sobchak and Sergei Michailowitsch Shachrai as the leading figures in the drafting of the constitution. Shakhrai was then the authorized representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation .

Subdivision

The Constitution of the Russian Federation is divided as follows:

  • preamble
  • First section: The basic provisions
    • Chapter 1. Basics of the constitutional order (Art. 1–16)
    • Chapter 2. Rights and freedoms of people and citizens (Articles 17–64)
    • Chapter 3. Federal structure (Art. 65–79)
    • Chapter 4. The President of the Russian Federation (Articles 80-93)
    • Chapter 5. Federation Assembly (Articles 94-109)
    • Chapter 6. Government of the Russian Federation (Articles 110–117)
    • Chapter 7. The judiciary (Articles 118–129)
    • Chapter 8. Local self-government (Art. 130-133)
    • Chapter 9. Constitutional amendments and revision of the constitution (Articles 134-137)
  • Second section: the final and transitional provisions

The first section essentially anchors the foundations of the political, societal, legal, economic and social system in Russia, while the second section is intended to ensure the stability of the constitutional laws and contains transitional provisions when this constitution is introduced. Chapter 9 of the first section gives the President of Russia, the Federation Council , the State Duma and the Government of the Russian Federation the right to propose amendments to constitutional provisions. Only the provisions in chapters 3 to 8 can be changed. For a change, the proposal must be approved by the Duma with a two-thirds majority and by the Federation Council with three-fifths of the votes, as well as the approval by parliaments of at least two-thirds of the Russian Federation subjects . A change to the provisions in chapters 1, 2 or 9 is only possible in the course of a proposal to completely revise the constitution. In addition to the approval of the two chambers of parliament, this also requires legitimation by means of a referendum .

Constitutional amendments

In 2008 the constitution was changed for the first time, after which the term of office of the Russian President was extended from 4 to 6 years, the term of office of the State Duma deputies from 4 to 5 years and it was established that the government must be accountable to the State Duma.

So far, a total of eight amendments have been made to the 1993 constitution, most of which concerned the federal structure of Russia. Among other things, the new federal subject by law of 25 March 2004 Perm region through the merger of two entities - Oblast Perm and Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug formed -.

After the referendum on the status of Crimea , the law of March 21, 2014 amended Art. 65 of the Constitution so that Crimea and the city of Sevastopol are now also subjects of the Federation.

In mid-March 2020, parliament passed a constitutional amendment with a single vote against in the Federation Council (upper house), which canceled the counting of the previous terms of office of the President of Russia , Vladimir Putin . The changes were also adopted in the parliaments of the regions within a very short time. The only MP who spoke out against it in the Sakha parliament justified its rejection on the basis of the inherent danger of this constitution for the separation of powers . The constitutional court , which had never ruled against the government in Putin's entire term in office, had one week from that point to judge the constitutional amendment and declared its legality on March 16. On March 18, Putin signed the constitutional amendment law. According to Eberhard Schneider , a number of laws are already considered obsolete with the entry into force of the Amendment Act .

The final step in the process was a referendum planned for April 22nd, through which the constitutional amendment was to be subsequently confirmed by the Russian people. However, the proposed amendments to the constitution did not legally require a referendum or the convening of the constitutional assembly. Although the referendum is usually not binding, the Duma’s constitutional amendment law explicitly made it binding this time. The referendum planned for April 22, 2020 was postponed to June 25, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and ran until July 1, 2020.

In total, the constitutional amendment comprised more than 170 amendments, which were decided as a package (not in detail) in the referendum.

In addition to the constitutional amendment, which will enable Vladimir Putin to remain in office until 2036 if he has won re-elections, the following constitutional amendments, among others, were voted:

  • The primacy of the Russian constitution over international law
  • The Federation Council is given the right to propose that federal judges be removed from office. On the other hand, on the proposal of the President, the Federation Council has to remove judges of the constitutional and supreme courts.
  • Ministers, judges and regional leaders may not have any foreign citizenship or residence permit at the time they are in office .
  • Presidential candidates must have lived in Russia for the previous 25 years and must never have held a foreign residence permit, primary residence abroad, or foreign citizenship.
  • Allocation of rights according to which the State Duma can decide on the candidacy of prime ministers and federal judges as well as their deputies, which the president then has to accept. (However, the President can remove them from office in certain cases.)
  • Ministers who are heads of law enforcement agencies are to be appointed by the President in consultation with the Federation Council.
  • Regular indexing of pensions
  • Confession to God
  • Prohibition of falling below the minimum wage compared to the subsistence level
  • Definition of marriage as the sole alliance between man and woman

77.9 percent of the votes cast were for the proposed amendment to the Russian constitution, compared with 21.27 percent. The turnout was 67.97 percent.

The voting process was criticized by pro-Western election observers as undemocratic. Many eligible voters are said to have been forced to vote by their employers. In order to achieve a high turnout, among other things, condominiums, cars, tractors, iPhones, electric scooters, tablet computers, kitchen appliances and lawnmowers were raffled off among the voters. These prizes, which would be distributed over a maximum of seven million lucky tickets, had a total value of the equivalent of 126 million euros. It was also possible to order election workers and the ballot box to your home, which made observation of the election difficult. The first results of the vote were announced from some parts of the country while the vote was still going on in other parts of the country.

On July 3, President Putin signed the ordinance on the publication of the constitutional text with the registered constitutional amendments, which came into force on July 4, 2020.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Constitutions of Russia  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Конституция Российской Федерации - 15 лет спустя (accessed September 14, 2018).
  2. ↑ Preservation of power in fast motion , FAZ, March 15, 2020
  3. ↑ The MP who is the only one who takes on Putin , Die Welt, March 12, 2020
  4. ↑ "I cannot protect the interests of the people with such a constitution." , Novaya Gazeta, March 14, 2020
  5. ↑ “I don't want to go on living like this until he dies” , Spiegel, March 12, 2020
  6. ↑ “I don't want to go on living like this until he dies” , Spiegel, March 12, 2020
  7. ↑ Eberhard Schneider : Constitutional Amendment Act , Russia Controversy, April 4, 2020
  8. ↑ Is Vladimir Putin Extending his Russian Authoritarian Regime? , as of April 24, 2020.
  9. ↑ Eberhard Schneider : Constitutional Amendment Act , Russia Controversy, April 4, 2020.
  10. ↑ The Eternal Putin , SZ, April 23, 2020.
  11. ↑ Legal text, Article 3, point 4
  12. ↑ a b c d Christian Esch, DER SPIEGEL: Russia: Vladimir Putin and the strange referendum on the constitution - DER SPIEGEL - politics. Retrieved July 1, 2020 .
  13. ↑ What kind of constitution? , Novaya Gazeta, April 26, 2020; Comment: "Decoration"
  14. ↑ tagesschau.de: Analysis: How Putin is consolidating his power. Retrieved July 2, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Five key moments in Vladimir Putin's political career Tagesspiegel, July 1, 2020
  16. ↑ Putin Proposes Constitutional Ban on Gay Marriage . In: The New York Times , March 3, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2020. "By including an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman," they are reinventing the vote as a referendum for traditional values, "said Ekaterina Schulmann, a Moscow-based political scientist. " 
  17. ↑ Putin submits plans for constitutional ban on same-sex marriage (en) . In: the Guardian , March 2, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2020. “For me, the most important proposal would fix the status of marriage as a union between a man and a woman,” Pyotr Tolstoy, a vice-speaker in the Duma, told reporters " 
  18. ↑ Putin Proposes to Enshrine God, Heterosexual Marriage in Constitution (en) . In: The Moscow Times , March 2, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2020. "Putin's fourth stint in the Kremlin has seen a strong pivot to more conservative policies, with groups promoting fundamentalist Orthodox Christian views gaining more legitimacy and liberal viewpoints attacked as Moscow's relations with the West have soured. " 
  19. ↑ How Putin's 78 percent success comes about. Retrieved July 3, 2020 .
  20. ↑ a b Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Referendum in Russia: What's wrong? | DW | July 1, 2020. Accessed July 2, 2020 (German).
  21. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Constitutional amendment in Russia: Putin for life | DW | July 1, 2020. Accessed July 2, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 03.07.2020 № 445 ∙ Официальное опубликование пра∙вование пра∙вование пра∙вование пра∙вование пра∙вовование пра∙вовых актова правовование пра∙вовых актова правовование. Retrieved July 3, 2020 .