Review of Some Amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation

Abstract

On March 14, 2020 , the Law of the Russian Federation on the amendment to the Constitution of the Russian Federation from 14.03.2020 N 1-FKZ (hereinafter — the law on the amendment), or rather its article 3, which provides for the entry into force of the amendments themselves to the Basic Law of the country, as well as several related issues, was officially published and entered into force. After only two days — March 16, 2020 was the Conclusion of the constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (hereinafter — CC RF), "On compliance with the provisions of chapters 1, 2 and 9 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation pending its entry into force the provisions of the Law of the Russian Federation on the amendment of the Constitution" (hereinafter — the Conclusion). The proposed amendments affect a number of issues that are socially significant and therefore require detailed study, such as: fixing additional social guarantees for the population in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, setting the maximum number of presidential terms that a single person can hold, fixing requirements for persons applying for a number of positions, introducing a rule on the State Council, the possibility of checking the compliance of laws with the Constitution of the Russian Federation before they are signed by the President, etc. Even when the text of the original Bill was published, it caused quite a lively discussion not only in the society of professional lawyers, but also among those who do not have special knowledge in the field of law. Without trying to analyze in detail the entire text of the amendment Law (this would require writing a whole book) and without claiming absolute truth of the statements made, we will still try to consider its most interesting and controversial points, including relying on the Conclusion given by the constitutional court of the Russian Federation.