MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. The bill on amendments to the Russian Constitution may be changed, Chairman of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Statehood and Constitutional Legislation Committee Pavel Krasheninnikov said.
"We have discussed it today at a meeting of the working group [on constitutional amendments]," he told reporters in response to a question. "There is a provision in the Constitution’s article dedicated to amendments, which says that such a document needs to be considered as a federal constitutional law," he explained. "That said, there will be a first reading, while changes can be introduced between the first and the second readings, and the third reading will be followed by a legal and linguistic review," Krasheninnikov added.
He was confident that State Duma members would come up with some changes. "We already know that there are some initiatives and who is going to put them forward," he said. "Besides, as far as the working group is concerned, we will present some changes to the president," Krasheninnikov noted, pointing out that the head of state himself had suggested that the working group’s members initiate changes to the bill.
On January 15, the Russian president signed an order to create a working group to hammer out constitutional amendments. The working group consists of 75 members, including politicians, lawmakers, researchers and public figures. Head of the Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Andrei Klishas, Head of the State Duma Statehood and Constitutional Legislation Committee Pavel Krasheninnikov and Director of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation Taliya Habrieva co-chair the group.
On Monday, the president submitted a bill on constitutional amendments to the State Duma. The bill comprises the amendments that Putin proposed in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on January 15.