All-Cossack Social Center, Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus Jointly Denounce Putin’s Constitutional Plans

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 16 – Last summer, the All-Cossack Social Center and the Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus agreed to cooperate (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/08/all-cossack-social-center-and-assembly.html). One result of this is that they have jointly denounced Vladimir Putin’s decision to rewrite the Russian Constitution.

            In a declaration issued today and distributed by Aleksandr Dzikovitsky of the All-Cossack Social Center by email – anyone who wants a copy of the original may email me at paul.goble@gmail.com – the two groups explain their opposition to Putin’s latest constitutional moves.

            “Any civilized and wisely arranged state has a strict legal hierarchy, with “a constitution above any other legal act and one that cannot be replaced or changed by any other act; laws which regulate this or that aspect of law an legal relations … written directives … which do not contradict either … and oral orders of the bosses which cannot contradict any of the above.”

            But “in the Russian Federation in its current form, the entire system has been turned upside down. Therefore, the Constitution of Russia de facto turns out to be the least significant legal act, with less legal force than simple oral orders” made by the powers that be, the joint declaration continues.

            As a result, as practice confirms, “everything that is written in the Constitution of Russia is constantly ignored and trampled upon by the powers that be, and in the population, the opinion has spread that the Constitution of Russia is not worth more than the paper on which it is printed.”

            That reality means that all the talk about the “fateful” changes Putin has proposed will not change anything and are nothing but “a profanation, a smokescreen for something else” – or simply a show to distract Russians from the deteriorating quality of their lives.

            “We, the All-Cossack Social Center and the Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus, consider that in a seriously ill, de facto turned upside down legal system, that no changes will occur as a result of the “all-people” adoption of amendments to the Constitution of Russia.” Our lives depend not on such documents but on what those in power say and do.

            Consequently, “if someone wants to take part in ‘voting’ on the legitimation of the latest, profoundly insane action of the powers, then he must understand that he will be used only for the creation of ‘mass approval’” because the powers will do whatever they have to, including massive falsifications to get what they want.

            For a real change in the Constitution, there must be a constitutional assembly and subsequent voting on each proposed change rather than a vote on them as a package deal.  But for that to happen, the current hierarchy of rules will have to be reversed, something that will require a very different government than the one Russia has today.