Amendment Process Not Going According to Plan and Russian Constitution Will Never be the Same, Shaburov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 9 – The process of amending the Russian constitution is not going according to plan, Aleksey Shaburov says, something that its authors now openly admit but the full implications of which they have yet to face. In fact, by initiating this process, Vladimir Putin has opened “a Pandora’s box” that may be closed only with the most serious consequences.

            It is already clear, the Yekaterinburg commentator says, that “the role and status of the Constitution will never again be what it was.”  There have already been more than 130 official proposals for amendments, and while many are “exotic,” the fact that they are being made is important in and of itself (politsovet.ru/65436-konstituciya-kak-yaschik-pandory.html).

            “Over the course of 26 years, the Constitution was considered untouchable,” he continues. “It could be changed but not in any essential way. The thought that there was no need to do so was one of ‘the bindings’ of the political system created by Vladimir Putin,” Shaburov continues.

            But now the floodgates have been opened, and people are making all kinds of proposals, sometimes these are complaints, at others fantasies, but they give those who make them a chance for “15 minutes of fame.” And as a result, the Basic Law “risks becoming an all-Russian book of complaints and proposals.”

            The real problem arises not from the proposals that in fact are included, Shaburov argues; the real problem arises from those that have surfaced but will not be adopted because “after a certain time,” people will make these proposals again and cite the process used this time as the basis for adopting what they want.

            And these will likely involve not just Articles 3-8 which supposedly can be changed by the method the Kremlin has announced but Articles 1 and 2 which will require the convention of a Constitutional Convention, the results of which are truly unpredictable, the Politsovet editor suggests.

            Indeed, it seems, Shaburov says, that what is occurring now is only a kind of preparation for making even more massive changes in the Constitution. “And it is completely possible that in the coming years, the authorities will more than once suggest to their ideological allies” that they only need to “wait a bit” before getting the changes they want.

            If that proves to be the case, then the Constitution will be changed to the point of unrecognizability. And a place in the Basic law will be found “for God and for the Great and for ideology and for Orthodoxy” as well.