Emilia Slabunova on the key amendment to the Constitution

Novaya Gazeta, 22.01.2020

The most intriguing thing in the draft amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, introduced by the President to the State Duma, the most intriguing thing is the paragraph “g.1” proposed by him to Article 83, which defines the powers of the head of state.

There is already item “g” in the article. It runs that the President forms and heads the Security Council of the Russian Federation, an advisory constitutional body that prepares decisions on security issues and organisation of defense, protection of the constitutional order and sovereignty. The status of this body is determined by the federal law “On Security”.

According to this law, the President approves the national security strategy, which happened, in particular, on 31 December, 2015, as well as other conceptual documents in this field. For example, in November 2013, he approved the Concept of Public Safety in the Russian Federation.

However, no one managed to hear the reports on the progress of their implementation and the results – either from the head of the Security Council or from his secretary. In February 2018, as the Chair of the party, I sent an appeal to Putin, who was preparing to present the presidential election programme in his Address to the Federal Assembly, with a proposal to first report to the country on the implementation of these two main and other strategic documents, as well as previous Addresses. The answer was simple: everything was in the media, look it up.

What the State Council proposed in paragraph “g.1” will prepare for the President will remain a secret until the law on its status emerges. But the wording of the State Council’s mission proposed for the Constitution says a lot. It is being created “in order to ensure coordinated functioning and interaction of state authorities, determine the main directions of domestic and foreign policies of the Russian Federation and priority directions of the socio-economic development of the state”.

You will say that it is something painfully familiar. Oh sure! This is the wording of the mission of the President taken from Article 80 of the Constitution. It is the President who, in accordance with the current Basic Law, “ensures coordinated functioning and interaction of state authorities”, it is he who “determines the main directions of the state’s domestic and foreign policies.”

Can it be true that Vladimir Putin is ready to give his fundamental powers to the new body?! Other plans are obvious: he is going to transfer to the State Council together with these powers.

That is how a coup d’etat is taking place, without any special disguise and before public, apparently, somewhat later it be described as hybrid.

This coup is packaged into a semblance of a social contract, looking rather like a vulgar political barter deal. We give you a minimum wage at the level of a beggarly living wage; indexation of social payments and pensions in the order envisaged by the law that no one has seen, and possibly in the amount of 0.1% once every ten years; effective functioning of pension provision, which does not affect further raising the retirement age. And you give us a lifetime opportunity to ensure the interaction of government bodies for the purpose of stability of the “blessings” granted to you.

No wonder the letter “G” [as the initial letter of a Russia word symbolising a very bad situation] fell out for the Amendment.

Source

https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2020/01/21/83562-prezident-hodit-na-zh-1

EMILIA SLABUNOVA

is member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, party Chair in 2015-2019, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia, candidate of pedagogical sciences, Honored Teacher of Russia.