MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. The working group on amendments to Russia’s constitution will have time to consider incoming proposals by February 14, the deadline set by the State Duma’s profile Committee on State Building and Legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov, the group’s co-chair, told reporters on Wednesday.
"The amendments are to be submitted [to the committee] until February 14," he recalled. "We will keep up with it. We do have time," the lawmaker said adding that no plans had been announced as of yet for the deadline to be extended.
The lawmaker added that the date for the group’s final session had not been yet fixed.
"I think that after [February] 14 we [members of the Committee on State Building and Legislation - TASS] will understand the state of amendments. We will be tallying up," Krasheninnikov added.
He specified that afterwards the committee would suggest the date for the second reading of the presidential bill on amendments to the country’s constitution.
On January 23, Russia’s State Duma (lower house) unanimously voted to approve the bill in the first reading on the constitutional amendments submitted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The document, in particular, stipulates expanding the powers of the legislature and the Constitutional Court, a ban on high-ranking officials from holding residency permits in other countries, limiting the number of presidential terms, placing the supremacy of Russia’s constitution over international agreements and strengthening the state’s social obligations. The presidential bill also provides for a nationwide public vote on the law on amendments to Russia’s constitution.