Putin announces overhaul of Russian legislation
Amendments to the Russian Constitution, approved at the popular vote, come into force, announced on Friday, July 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the decree signed by Putin and posted on the website of legal information, Russia will start living under the new Basic Law from July 4.
The Russian Federal Security Service ((FSB) is tasked with ensuring that the amended Constitution is published on the pravo.gov.ru website, the document reads.
The amendments come into force "without any overstatement at the will of the people," Putin said at a meeting with the working group preparing constitutional reform.
According to the Russian Central Election Commission, 77.92% of those who came to the polls voted in favor of the changes, which, among other things, will allow Putin to remain in power until 2036. This result shows the high consolidation of Russian society, the President said.
"We have made this momentous decision together, as a whole country, and it concerns the values and basic principles that underlie Russia's further development," he said.
The authorities will not limit themselves to amending certain articles of the Constitution. Russia will have a large-scale and qualitative change of the entire legislative framework, Putin said.
"It was obvious that if citizens supported the amendments, serious large-scale legislative work would be required. And this moment has come," Putin addressed the working group, which in addition to deputies and senators included the ataman of the All-Russian Cossacks society, Nikolai Doluda, pianist Denis Matsuev and two-time Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva.
Changes in the country, according to Putin, "affect everyone."
The Russian State Duma will immediately begin to work on the adoption of new laws to implement amendments, said the speaker of the lower house Vyacheslav Volodin. "It is extremely important," he added, that the standards of the updated Constitution "become the norm of life for us."
Legislation in the Duma will begin "virtually from today," Volodin said: for the sake of this, MPs will have to give up vacation.
"Whoever took on the duties of deputy, politician, should understand: the politician, the deputy has no vacations, it’s all conditional," Volodin explained. "Our deputies have responsible attitude; I hope that all of them understand that now we need to work on new laws."
About 100 constitutional and federal laws will need to be changed, said Pavel Krasheninnikov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Statehood and Constitutional Legislation Committee.
Five areas will be reviewed, he said. The first is social guarantees, pensions, support for the institution of the family, education; the second is healthcare, science and culture; the third is the laws on public power, issues of municipal and public service, elections legislation.
The fourth block is the defense and security, the sanctity of the territory; fifth, laws relating to business, entrepreneurship, property rights and the development of civil society institutions.