Press Release, 28.02.2020

The Public Constitutional Council and the Yabloko party launched the web-site vote.const2020.ru, where one can take a test and find out whose amendments to the Constitution are better for one: those by President Putin or representatives of civil society.

The test consists of 15 pairs of cards with 15 amendments on the following topics: the powers and terms of office of the President, the structure of the state bodies of power, formation and resignation of the government, appointment of Prime Minister, formation of the Federation Council and the Constitutional Court, appointment of judges, role of international law, court jurors and liability for torture.

When choosing an answer, the authors of a particular amendment or stance are not shown to the user.

After the user answers all 15 questions are given, the system will give the result as a percentage of support for the amendments of Vladimir Putin or representatives of civil society. The user will be able to see whose variants the user have chosen: those proposed by civil society or the President.

Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko party and member of the Public Constitutional Council says,

– The amendments to the Russian Constitution in the form in which they are submitted to the State Duma are difficult for perception of people who do not have a background in law. At the same time, each of them affects our life, regardless of what we do or what our background is. Therefore, we decided not only to contrast our own amendments with the approaches of the President, but do it in the form of a test which is simple to understand.

We do not specifically indicate the authors of this or that approach to the constitutional norm and give people the opportunity to decide for themselves which approach to the formation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers is closer to them – ours or Putin’s.

The result of the test is not a verdict or a diagnosis, as is often the case on such web-sites, but the percentage distribution, almost as a result of an election or referendum. The authorities are preparing an “all-Russian vote” with a predictable result, but we are certain that there will be much more supporters of our amendments than Putin’s. Because our amendments are written in the interests of all Russian citizens, not the authorities.

It should be noted that in early February, Yabloko’s regional deputies submitted to the legislative assemblies of five regions the first package of amendments to the Constitution, developed by the Public Constitutional Council. The second package will come soon. In particular, it will include a proposal to enshrine in the Basic Law that torture is a grave crime and a court can not pass a sentence without an investigation into use of torture to the defendant if such a statement is made by the defendant.

The founders of the Public Constitutional Committee are economist Yegeny Gontmakher, journalist Leonid Nikitinsky, politician Vladimir Ryzhkov and politician and economist Grigory Yavlinsky. The Council consists of 26 people, including Lev Gudkov, Director of the Levada Centre, politician Gennady Gudkov, journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, Yuri Kostanov, member of the Presidential Human Rights Council, Arkady Lyubarev and Grigory Melkonyants from the Golos movement, historian Andrei Medushevsky, economist Igor Nikolayev, lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, one of the authors of the Russian Constitution, Viktor Sheinis and others.