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Russian parliament gives early approval to Putin’s constitutional amendments

Russia's parliament voted on Thursday to give early approval to constitutional amendments aimed to provide President Vladimir Putin with a new role to stay in power. - AP
Russia's parliament voted on Thursday to give early approval to constitutional amendments aimed to provide President Vladimir Putin with a new role to stay in power. - AP

Russia’s parliament on Thursday provisionally approved constitutional amendments to reshuffle the country’s power structure to offer Vladimir Putin another role to stay in charge beyond 2024, as authorities said the package would be put to the public vote.

Mr Putin is not eligible to run again but he is widely believed to intend to stay in power.

Thursday’s vote at the State Duma came less than a week after Mr Putin announced an array of proposals to amend the constitution that he claims will democratise Russian institutions and give more powers to the parliament.

However, the amendments as they were submitted by the Kremlin showed that the new president will still remain a powerful figure while Russia will also get a new body, the State Council whose powers have yet to be determined.

Authorities have baffled legal experts by saying that the constitutional changes will be put up to a popular vote after they are approved by parliament and signed into a law. The vote is likely to be held weeks if not months from now.

The amendments do not affect the first two and most fundamental chapters of the constitution, so technically they do not need a popular approval, pro-Kremlin lawmakers said.

The decision to put the constitutional changes up to a vote shows that the Kremlin is anxious to further legitimize the new political set-up.

Asked what would happen if the popular vote is against the amendments, Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin asked reporters on Thursday “not to put the cart before the horse.”

“We assume that this is what the public wants,” he said, quoting the unanimous vote in the chamber earlier that day. “You saw it at the vote. During the debate we did not see anyone against it.”

Valery Gartung, Duma lawmaker and member of a task force to discuss the amendments, admitted on the Dozhd TV station that the voting would have no legal consequences and would be held solely because Mr Putin asked for it.

“The president said we need to ask citizens’ opinion, that means we’re going to ask them,” Mr Gartung said.

Mr Putin unveiled the proposals last Wednesday, and the amendments breezed through the constitutional task force before the Kremlin submitted them to parliament on Monday.

Neither Kremlin officials nor lawmakers were able to explain why changes to Russia’s supreme law have to be so rushed.