PRESIDENT YELTSIN'S CONSTITUTION FOR RUSSIA

EDM number 2150 in 1992-93, proposed by Ken Livingstone on 14/06/1993.

That this House strongly opposes the constitution put forward for Russia by President Yeltsin; notes that this constitution gives the President the right to make laws without reference to Parliament by issuing decrees, to dissolve Parliament at any time and on any number of occasions, to declare martial law or introduce a state of emergency without reference to Parliament and personally appoint all federal judges and senior military officials; notes that under this constitution the President can only be removed by agreement of the High Court Office, which is to consist only of people put forward or appointed by the President himself; considers that such constitutional features are imcompatible with democracy and as the Independent newspaper put it on 10th June 'would give the President almost untrammelled power'; notes the opposition of a wide range of democrats in Russian Federation of Trade Unions and the head of the Parliamentary Constitutional Commission, C. Rumyantsev; and believes that the only way forward in Russia is the holding of fair elections during which, unlike the recent referendum, there will be a fair access for all major viewpoints to the media.

This motion has been signed by a total of 34 MPs.