23.06.2020

Open address to the President of the Russian Federation

Respected Mr. President,

A nationwide representative opinion poll conducted by the Levada Centre a few days ago shows that 28% of Russian citizens are ready to vote for the package of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation – the Constitution of Free People – developed by the Public Constitutional Council and the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko, at the same time, only 25% [are going to vote] for the project proposed by you and the Federal Assembly.

Specific amendments by the Constitutional Council and Yabloko are supported by 41% to 95% of the polled. In general, support for our alternative project is 74% against 17%.

80% of the people who participated in the poll are certain that the draft Constitution of Free People should be put to a popular vote on a par with yours. Thus, it is clear that most Russians consider an alternative vote to be correct and necessary.

Voting for only one single package of amendments, that is, in the absence of a choice, does not satisfy Russian society.

This cannot be solved by any lotteries at the polling stations, and any numbers announced from television screens will not change this fact. Amendments made by you and the Federal Assembly will not pass with a fair vote.

Your electoral commission will certainly provide any numbers, but in reality, neither now nor after July 1, the current government does not enjoy and will not have a majority.

Acting in the spirit of civil peace, we, remaining your principal political opponents, would like to offer a decent way out of this situation.

Given that the incidence of coronavirus in Russia remains very high – even according to official figures, it is higher than in all other European countries all together, and the Levada Centre survey showed that the majority of the Russian population (60%) consider voting unacceptable in a pandemic, – it is necessary to cancel the “All-Russian vote”, scheduled for June 25 – July 1, announcing its postponement for some period.

We propose to use the deferment to create fundamentally new conditions for a conversation with our compatriots. We suggest starting a real dialogue: with debates, campaigning of all the sides, with an alternative draft of the Constitution of Free People, and providing people the opportunity to vote separately on each amendment from the submitted drafts.

We understand that making such a decision is not easy, but it is necessary for uniting the society, at least for a partial restoration of significantly undermined confidence in state institutions.

This is a politically reasonable way out of the strategic deadlock in which the state administration of Russia finds itself. It seems to us that today there is no other acceptable approach for the country to start solving extremely serious problems that have accumulated over the three post-Soviet decades. Certainly, one can try to pave the way to the future by force, go through the lives and destinies of people. But this violence against society will not solve any of the problems, and only exacerbate them and, certainly, will lead to even greater loss by the current leadership of the country of popular support and confidence.

We consider it our duty to offer you a peaceful and legitimate compromise solution.

Respectfully,

Co-Chairs of the Public Constitutional Council:

Yevgeny Gontmakher

Leonid Nikitinsky

Vladimir Ryzhkov

Grigory Yavlinsky

Chairman of the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko:

Nikolai Rybakov

Russian citizens can sign the address on Change.org