Today Russians celebrate Constitution Day. The Basic Law was adopted on December 12th in 1993 in a national referendum, and by decree of Russian President Boris Yeltsin as of September 19th 1994 this day was declared a public holiday. The structure of the supreme bodies of the state power were significantly changed in the new Constitution of the Russian Federation. It determined the principle of separation of powers and made a serious step towards the improvement of the federal structure of Russia. According to the norms of the Constitution, anyone can protect their rights, referring to the document.
The Constitution is the main law of the state that provides political stability and the key point to a decent life and development of society. Human rights and freedoms are proclaimed as the highest values of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
The Constitution specifically underlines the importance of its direct action as the main source of law, particularly the rules of the rights and freedoms that define the meaning, content and application of laws, and the activities of the legislative and executive authorities.
The Basic Law proclaimed the President of the Russian Federation as the Head of State and made him responsible for the obligation to protect the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, protect the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, its independence and state integrity, as well as ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of the state authorities, RIA Novosti reports.
Since January 1st 2005 the day became only a memorable date: The State Duma adopted amendments to the Labor Code. However, in 2013 Chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko announced readiness to discuss the opportunity to make Constitution Day a holiday once again.
According to Matviyenko, there is no need for a radical change of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. It provides a stable development of the country. The Speaker believes that he won’t have such a necessity "in the foreseeable future.’’
"The Constitution reliably ensures a stable sustainable development of the country and the rights and freedoms of citizens, its national interests on the world arena. And the Russian state and society haven’t had any irresolvable problems during this period of time within the framework of the current Constitution," she said.
However, the leader of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, said that the Constitution of the Russian Federation needs to be updated in order to increase public control over the executive power. According to him, the main bias of the current Constitution is that the President maintains state-patriotic policy externally, while criminal-oligarchic politics is being carried out inside the country.
Various educational and cultural activities are taking place today all over the country: lessons of law, panel discussions, case presentations, exhibitions, gala concerts, mass demonstrations, rallies and flash mobs.
Meanwhile, the Federation Council has recently approved a bill giving the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation the right to ignore decisions of international courts which contradict the RF Constitution.
