Statement by Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko, 19.01.2020

President Vladimir Putin has decided to make urgent changes to the Constitution. The proposals made by him in his [annual] Address [to the Federal Assembly] are vague and incomprehensible from a legal point of view. It is proposed to isolate Russia from international law and this is called sovereignty, give the President the right to dismiss judges of higher courts, turn the Constitutional Court into a kind of legal department of the State Duma, form a new constitutional bureaucratic body – the State Council -with incomprehensible powers. Speaking of the need for change, the President proposes decorative amendments, such as approval of the government by the State Duma, whereas the President can anytime terminate the powers of the government. For all their incoherence, the political vector of these amendments is obvious: not only to maintain the current system, but to make it even more authoritarian, closed and economically inefficient. This is also demonstrated by the composition of the working group created by the President for preparation of amendments.

Yabloko believes that making amendments to the Constitution is not the case when amendments are announced from the rostrum, and then a servile working group is created, the whole task of which is to approve them and submit them to a plebiscite.

Responsible policies are not “approvals” without a single “against” in the case of a vote artificially invented by the Central Electoral Commission or in the silent State Duma. Responsible policies mean joint action of people, a common creative work to build their state.

Therefore, Yabloko considers it necessary to take an active civic political action: to propose to society such amendments to the Constitution as are necessary for Russian citizens, and not for the ruling group.

We declare that we will immediately begin to prepare an alternative set of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and will submit them to the public in the near future. It is important for us that in addition to the irreconcilable enemies of the ideas and values ​​set in the first chapters of the Constitution (as well as skaters and artists [participating in the President’s working group]), other voices be heard. These are renowned constitutional professionals and young people with democratic views who care about the state in which they and their children will live.

The most important political task for Yabloko is to create a space for their political creativity, create an opportunity for all of them – both supporters of the Yabloko party and people who are completely non-partisan – to express their opinion and their will.

The purpose of this work is to protect not only the letter, but also the spirit of the Constitution, consolidate the values ​​of its first chapters in the structure of government so as to guarantee and make inviolable the separation of powers, independent and fair justice, fair competition in politics and the economy, free elections, free spreading of opinions and beliefs, freedom of the media, freedom of peaceful public action, inadmissibility of political repression, inviolability of private property, real plenipotentiary local self-government, compliance by the state with its international obligations (primarily in ensuring human rights and freedoms).

To do this, we are creating a working group of representatives of Yabloko, independent lawyers, jurisprudents, political scientists, experts, politicians, who will prepare a set of draft amendments to the Constitution.

Yabloko will demand a referendum in which citizens can declare which amendments to the Constitution they support: amendments by the civil society or amendments by Vladimir Putin and his entourage. It is obvious to us that the foundations of the constitutional system of Russia today need protection from encroachments.

We believe that our common civic and political responsibility is to offer an alternative to life-long personal rule and bring this alternative to the judgement of the people of Russia – the only legitimate source of power in our country.

We are offering an alternative, we are offering to act.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko

Grigory Yavlinsky 

is Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko Party, Vice-President of Liberal International. Doctor of Economics, Professor of the National Research University “Higher School of Economics”.