by Gevorg Mirzayan
[REGNUM] Russia celebrates Constitution Day on December 12 for exactly 30 years. Then, at the end of 1993, the adoption of the new Basic Law was approved by 58% of Russians in a popular vote.
On the one hand, the Constitution ultimately became a solid foundation for the political system and the body of Russian laws; it helped preserve the integrity of the country and ensure its development. This was pointed out by the current Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko .
On the other hand, the Basic Law adopted three decades ago—which was long called “Yeltsin’s”—had its drawbacks. “The 1993 Constitution is the constitution of a state defeated in the Cold War. And it bore a vivid imprint of that period,” political scientist and member of the Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations Bogdan Bezpalko told IA Regnum .
At that time, Russian society had a huge demand for a copy of the Western liberal (as it seemed to people then) model. The illusion that we will be friends with the West has not yet faded, and the first Russian president in the American Congress blessed the United States. It was generally accepted that the country no longer needed ideology, ideological protectionism, or even pride in its history (including its Soviet period).
Actually, the Constitution was written by people who were the bearers of all these misconceptions. Who were oriented not so much towards Russia as towards the West.
It is not surprising that already in the 2000s the text of the country’s Basic Law became somewhat outdated, and in the 2010s (especially after the return of Crimea and the transition of the conflict with the West to an open stage), a number of provisions of the country’s main document already required replacement.
“It is obvious that with the growth of our independence and self-awareness, this kind of Constitution could not suit us. Moreover, in addition to the fact that Russia has changed, the world has changed very much,” recalls Bogdan Bezpalko.
The interlocutor gave an example of such a recent change - previously in the West, for example, homosexuality was not a political factor, but by 2020 it has definitely become one.
A number of corporations allowed themselves to put forward various conditions to small states (like Serbia) regarding the need to develop the LGBT movement, recalls Bogdan Bezpalko.
“Progressive” societies, from which the Russian public tried to take an example 30 years ago, have irreversibly changed, not for the better, and in Russia the illusions that our destiny is a “catching-up model of development” have been dispelled. The main text of the country had to be brought into line with real life.
That is why in 2020, President Vladimir Putin initiated first a nationwide discussion of possible amendments, and then a popular vote for the final version.
Yes, it wasn't easy. Dozens and hundreds of draft amendments and energetic public squabbles over a number of them could turn the constitutional debate into a real farce.
But, as experts emphasize, the president managed to consolidate the executive and judicial powers, as well as civil society.
To introduce discussions in a positive direction, to cut off the most odious proposals and, ultimately, to ensure that almost all segments of Russian society feel involved in the new package of amendments.
So that the new version should still be a Constitution of consent, and not a Constitution of discord of the 1993 model - adopted, as is known, immediately after the “victory” of the executive branch over the legislative branch, which reverberated around Russia for many years to come.
Putin’s efforts were not in vain - in addition to consent, the Constitution also acquired a number of necessary articles.
For example, it included clauses on children, on marriage as a union of a man and a woman, and on social guarantees for the population.
They introduced the word “God” (but in such a way as not to transform the country from a secular into a religious state), they approved the fundamental status of traditional values, the Russian language as the language of the state-forming people.
In essence, the Constitution has become a fully family-oriented, socially and people-oriented Basic Law. Suitable for a welfare state (which Russia is) and reflecting the aspirations of its people, and not a narrow circle of liberal dreamers.
Moreover, this concerned not only family and value issues, but also political and state issues.
“The Constitution, for example, enshrined the impossibility of territorial exclusion and separatism,” recalls Bezpalko. - Previously, this was not in the Constitution, and any politician - big, small, significant and not so - was not punished in any way for calls for separatism. Simply because we did not have such a provision in the legislation . ”
The rule about the impossibility of seizing territories (even negotiations on this topic) helped a lot in 2022. When President Putin initiated a vote in the new territories on their entry into Russia and thereby convinced the local population that Russia had come there forever. That she is not going to return people to the fold of the Ukrainian state.
In this and other points, the head of state foresaw events that would occur in a few years. He correctly assessed the trends in international relations and, in fact, did everything to ensure that the Constitution modified in 2020 reflected not only the level of transformation of Russian society, but also finally consolidated the sovereignty of our country.
More precisely, three aspects of sovereignty.
Physical sovereignty, when Russian lands remain Russian. Legal sovereignty - after the country’s Basic Law enshrines the priority of Russian law over international court decisions (now a Russian court can simply not enforce decisions made by someone outside the country).
Finally, spiritual sovereignty, when the value foundations of Russian society are protected from destructive Western ideology, including the practice of imposing LGBT values, as well as other manifestations of ultra-liberalism.
In fact, the Constitution has become the Basic Law of the state, which lives based on the great past and confidently looks into an equally great future. And it focuses exclusively on the will and interests of its own citizens.
Actually, current events confirm the correctness of another choice of the people made in 2020 - the right to vote again in the 2024 presidential elections for Vladimir Putin. Who has the full legal right to nominate himself for this term and who has already declared his intention to do so . “At different times I had different thoughts on this issue. But I understand: today it is impossible to do otherwise,” he said during a meeting with the participants of the SVO.
And now it is difficult to imagine a situation where, in the midst of the Northeast Military District, against the backdrop of defending the country from Western aggression, and being under colossal American and European sanctions pressure, Russians would have to elect some other figure. A figure who, unlike Vladimir Putin, would not have the opportunity to unite and consolidate the country, would not have such competencies and experience.