MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. The Constitutional amendments submitted by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, passed a legal expert study, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
The Russian presidential spokesman thus responded to a request to comment on the remarks by some constitutional law experts that the process of making amendments to the Fundamental Law partly contradicts the Russian legislation.
"This issue should be addressed to law experts. But, as you understand, law experts in the Duma and in the presidential administration are actively involved in the expert analysis of these amendments and thus the legal expert study is underway and has already been held," the Kremlin spokesman said.
The proposed method of making and enforcing amendments is not prohibited by the existing legislation. Although the law currently prescribes a certain procedure for amendments to the Constitution to come into force, "other [methods] are not prohibited," Peskov stressed.
The Kremlin spokesman advised turning to the working group on the amendments for further explanations.
The Russian president submitted amendments to the State Duma for the second reading on Monday, including the bill’s supplemented article 3 that regulates some issues related to the procedure for the document’s provisions to come into force. In particular, it follows from this article that after the law on amendments to the Constitution is passed and approved by no less than two-thirds of regional legislatures, it will be published and will enter into force, except for article 1 (the amendments proper to the text of the Fundamental Law) and article 2 (on holding a nationwide vote).
After that, the Russian president will request the Constitutional Court of Russia to assess the unenforced provisions of the document. Should the Constitutional Court find them compliant with chapters 1, 2 and 9 (the chapters that may not be altered by way of passing a federal constitutional law) of the effective Constitution, a nationwide vote will ensue. Upon the law’s approval by citizens at the nationwide vote, the Russian president will issue a decree on publishing the Constitution of Russia with amendments and indicating the date of their entry into force.
The official publication of the amended Constitution will take place "immediately after the results of the nationwide vote are officially published," the text of the presidential bill runs.