Press Release, 31.01.2020

Yabloko has created a party commission to draft constitutional amendments alternative to those of President Putin’s. This decision was made today by the Party Bureau. Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov will head the commission. The Executive Secretary of the commission will be Ivan Bolshakov, Yabloko Deputy Chairman.

In addition to developing the proposals, the commission will also collect amendments from party members, experts and representatives of civil society. The commission will have to complete the work by 20 February.

The commission includes party members who are experts in lawmaking. Among them are Andrei Babushkin, member of the Presidential Human Rights Council, Valery Borshchev, Co-Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Yevgeny Bunimovich, deputy of the Moscow City Duma and Chairman of the Education Commission of the Moscow City Duma, Boris Vishnevsky, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg, Yelena Dubrovina, head of Yabloko’s Centre for Legislative Initiatives, Viktor Sheinis, one of the authors of the Russian Constitution, Lev Shlosberg, head of the Yabloko faction of the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies, as well as Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Political Committee of Yabloko.

Grigory Yavlinsky will transfer the final proposals of the commission to the Public Constitutional Committee, of which he is one of the founders.

Commenting on the creation of the Commission, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov emphasised that “it is important to show how we see the real Constitution of the future, the Constitution of free people”.

It should be noted that the Public Constitutional Committee was created on the initiative of Grigory Yavlinsky. The Public Constitutional Committee began work on a package of amendments to the Constitution alternative to Vladimir Putin’s amendments. The co-founders of the Committee are Grigory Yavlinsky, economist Yevgeny Gontmakher, Leonid Nikitinsky, journalist and member of the editorial board of Novaya Gazeta and politician Vladimir Ryzhkov. The Scientific Advisory Council will help the Public Committee in this. When the work on the amendments is completed, they will be sent to the President of Russia and to the State Duma. The Committee will seek their consideration by popular vote, which is expected to take place in April.