HAPPY CONSTITUTION DAY OF RUSSIA!

The state holiday was established by the decree of the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin on September 19, 1994, and was a non-working day until 2004 inclusive.

The version, which was proposed to citizens at a national referendum in 1993, has been developed for more than three years by thousands of authors. The final version was published in the largest Russian newspapers so that citizens could study it and make the right decision.

More than 58 million Russians came to the referendum, most of them (about 32 million people) supported the proposed text of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, after which it was officially published (December 25) and entered into force. Since the same period, the Russian Federation has become a mixed presidential-parliamentary republic with a federal structure. The basis of government was based on the principle of the division of power into three branches — executive, legislative and judicial.

2020 Changes

On January 15, 2020, in a message to the Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin proposed to make a number of changes to the current Constitution of Russia. The proposed bill provided for 206 amendments to 42 articles of the basic law of the country. Among them are the provision on the priority of the Russian Constitution over the decisions of interstate bodies, significant changes in the powers of the President, the chambers of the Federal Assembly, the Constitutional and Supreme Courts, and others.

As part of the nationwide vote, the proposed amendments to the constitution were supported by over 57 million citizens. Amendments to the basic law of the state came into force on July 4.