Translated material
Senators are lifelong
The working group on changing the Constitution proposed the first correction: comments of political scientists
The State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation proposed to give former presidents the lifelong status of a member of the Federation Council. The working group, created by the president on January 15, decided to introduce this to the Constitution. According to the amendment, former presidents will receive such a right even in the event of early resignation. Moreover, they retain the right to abandon the powers of a member of the Council. News asked political scientists Ekaterina Shulman and Dmitry Oreshkin, which is connected with such a proposal.
Ekaterina Shulman
Political scientist
- We already have a presidential quota in the Federation Council already exists, and these amendments offer to expand it, that is, simply increase the number of senators that may be appointed president. And to give former presidents of this kind of status, which, apparently, should just have. I would not draw any other distant conclusions from this.
Although the reservation that the status of a lifelong senator also remains with the president who resigned ahead of schedule, but at the same time he will be able to refuse it, that is, if he does not want to be a senator, he will not be obliged to be very interesting. Obviously, this will relieve the need to adopt the law on guarantees as it was with Yeltsin, and give him immunity and some fairly decent look of a position.
Dmitry Oreshkin
Political scientist
- A rather obvious situation: people from the supreme structures are trying to read according to the eyebrows of the president, which he wants to get from them. But since they do not really understand, and he does not consider it necessary to explain to them and is happy to watch this cockroach begs - who will first come up with what he will like more - then these comrades are in the extent of his abilities and their competence that can be approved by Putin.
A lifelong member of the Federation Council is completely not what Putin needs. Much more important is the lifetime chairmanship in the State Council for former presidents.
It seems to me that this is not the most successful solution from the point of view of career growth, because for Putin this lifelong status of a member of the Federation Council is offensive. This is just one of the many Lisobate initiatives.
Moreover, this law is not for the next presidents, because Putin does not think about them at all. He understands much better that in this political reality the previous president had guarantees, but they depended only on Putin’s goodwill. In this sense, he was practically impeccable: as he promised Yeltsin, he behaved. He could have blamed him in retroactively or blame him for all sins. He did not fall guilty personally on Yeltsin, but on the "dashing 90s." The problem is that Putin himself perfectly understands what should he want, both Boris Yeltsin himself and his family would be torn to shreds. Since Putin believes himself, but everyone else does not, then he knows the price of these officially existing guarantees.
Therefore, the conversations that his security is guaranteed is so guaranteed, they simply go in favor of the poor. He understands that real guarantees give only control over power structures and money.
In Putin Russia, all legal paragraphs do not mean anything. But everyone means money and strength. As soon as you cease to be a handler of administrative goods, you become the fifth wheel in the cart. Of course, he needs to retain such a status not in order to be any member of the Federation Council, but for the security forces to continue to obey.