Putin signs decree to amend the Russian constitution
President says Russians voted ‘with their hearts’ to let him extend rule
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree yesterday to enact a package of amendments to the country’s constitution that will enable him to stay in power until 2036.
“Citizens of Russia have made their choice, and in accordance with this decision, I have signed a decree to officially publish the constitution to include the amendments,” Putin told a televised meeting of senior officials.
He received landslide approval for the package in a nationwide referendum earlier this week, with more than threequarters of the votes in favour, according to the official tally.
“People felt with their hearts that what was on offer (the amendments) ... was in demand and what the country needed,” Putin said in his first public comments on the vote. “In general, the results of the vote showed a high level of unity in society on key questions that are of national significance.”
The referendum was not independently observed by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which has traditionally monitored Russian elections.
The European Union demanded that Russia investigate allegations of irregularities in the voting, including voter coercion and multiple voting.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, responded such allegations by saying that Russia would ignore foreign criticism of the amendments.
“Russia has been and will remain committed, first and foremost, to national sovereignty,” Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency Tass. “We are not ready to take these so-called concerns into account and will not do it.”
The amendments enable Putin to run for re-election twice more and bolster the power of the government’s legislative branch, dominated by the Putin-loyal United Russia party.
They also instate a constitutional a ban on gay marriage and make it so that Putin’s fiercest challenger, Alexei Navalny, cannot attempt to run for the nation’s top political office for the next 15 years, as every presidential candidate now must have lived in Russia for the past quarter-century.
Other changes in the reform package grant former presidents immunity from prosecution, and enshrine a reference in the constitution to God.
Putin poked fun at the US embassy in Moscow for flying the rainbow flag as part of LGBT pride celebrations.
“They have shown something about who is working there. But never mind ... our position is understood,” said Putin, who has sought to distance Russia from liberal Western values and aligned himself with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Putin said during the campaign to change the constitution that he would not let the traditional notion of a mother and father be subverted by what he called “parent number 1” and “parent number 2”.