Viktor Khamrayev
Only the Communists voted against the constitutional amendments
Yesterday, the State Duma passed the first reading of President Dmitry Medvedev's amendments to the Constitution, which extend the presidential term to six years and the term of the State Duma, lower parliament chamber, to five years. Only the Russian Communist Party (KPRF) voted categorically against the amendments, declaring that the strengthening of the presidency without the counterbalancing strengthening of the legislature would increase "authoritarian rule" in the country.
That the Duma majority would vote in favour of the presidential bills was known in advance. Nevertheless, the President's plenipotentiary envoy to the State Duma, Alexander Kosopkin, introducing the package of three bills, saw it fit to restate the case for amending the Constitution. He said that prolonging the terms constituted "concrete measures to further develop civil society and the democratic state" that would enable the President and the parliament deputies "not only to lay down long-term strategic plans for the country, but to start implementing and go a long way in implementing the goals".
Mr Kosopkin regards as "positive" the fact that the presidential term would be increased to six years while the Duma's term only to five years: "It will separate in time two federal election campaigns." The presidential envoy noted that the bill that makes it binding on the government to report on its activities to the State Duma every year will "make it accountable to the entire population".
However, the presidential envoy's arguments made little impact with the KPRF; this is especially true of the contention that the current four-year term allows the President too little time to accomplish everything he has planned.
Viktor Ilyukhin recalled that "in his time, President Putin rightly said that ‘four years is enough to make a mess that will be hard to clear up'". "The institution of the presidency in Russia is sixteen years old, but nothing has changed in this country, despite the fact that one president was replaced by an appointed successor and the successor was replaced by another successor," the Communist deputy said. "President Yeltsin's powers effectively ended in the default, and President Putin's powers are effectively ending with the financial and economic crisis." Viktor Ilyukhin believes that "concentration of power in one hands has reached appalling proportions", and that the proposed amendments to the Constitution would "strengthen authoritarian rule", which is "dangerous and inadmissible".
His assessment of the "sixteen years of presidential rule" was vehemently challenged by the first Vice-Speaker of the State Duma, Oleg Morozov (United Russia). Actually, he "agreed to a certain extent" with the assessment of the "Yeltsin period", but not with the assessment of "the last eight years" under Mr Putin. Mr Morozov presented an arithmetical argument in favour of the need to extend the presidential term: "Six years comprises two budgetary cycles (at present the budget is adopted every three years - Kommersant). He further recalled that strategic planning in Russia is done "12 years in advance". Mr Morozov was referring to Strategy 2020, which his party promoted. 2020 is 12 years away, which makes up two presidential terms. Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov hastened to add yesterday that the powers of the incumbent president and the State Duma would not be terminated ahead of time.
Duma Vice Speaker and leader of the LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, assessed the presidential bills from the point of view of his party principles: the LDPR programme believes seven years is the optimal presidential term, but Mr Zhirinovsky did not insist on that figure, instead merely criticizing the Constitution as a whole because it was "copied from the American Constitution in 1993".
The Just Russia party again confirmed its status as ruling party No.2 by subscribing to the constitutional amendments. As a result, the first reading of the amendments won 388 votes. Under the Constitution, an amendment is deemed approved if it gets at least two-thirds of the votes (300 votes). All 57 deputies from the KPRF and one deputy from Zhirinovsky's party, Igor Rozhkov, voted against. Three members of Just Russia - Oksana Dmitriyeva, Ivan Grachev and Galina Khovanskaya (all former members of Yabloko) - abstained, and Mikhail Zalikhanov of United Russia also abstained.
The amendments continued to be discussed in the halls of the State Duma after the vote. Sergei Markov, a political scientist and member of United Russia, told foreign journalists that the presidency had to be strengthened because "the West is poking rockets in Russia's eyes". According to him, President Medvedev intends to "launch liberalization" in all spheres, but first has to strengthen his power in the face of "an aggressive Western attack".
Another member of United Russia, Alexander Moskalets, was stressing the importance of annual government reports to the State Duma. If the deputies, after hearing the report, "deem it unsatisfactory, the Government may resign," Mr Moskalets believes, recalling that in some countries, officials "commit suicide" when their integrity is compromised.
What worried the Communists most of all was the haste in amending the Constitution. The Communist Party's lawyers do not rule out that once amendments are approved, a reshuffle may take place "at the very top". In their opinion, Mr Putin "would resign as Prime Minister so as not to have to answer for the aftermath of the crisis," whereupon an early presidential election could take place. In the meantime, KPRF lawyers are considering the possibility of challenging the constitutional amendments in the Constitutional Court.
