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WILL THE RUSSIAN CONSTITUTION BE AMENDED?

MOSCOW, February 14. (RIA Novosti)-Last week some political scientists started a discussion about possible amendments to the Russian Constitution. Noviye Izvestia and Nezavisimaya Gazeta publish articles on this subject. Stanislav Belkovsky's Institute for National Strategy has come up with the most radical project, which would relieve the president of all responsibility for the socio-economic situation in the country and leave him as a kind of a monarch, notably, with an unlimited term of office.

Leaks have made it to the press that the Kremlin, too, wishes to have some constitutional norms amended, but Pavel Krasheninnikov, the chairman of the State Duma Legislation Committee, said on Sunday that the fundamental law would remain untouched for at least 20 years.

Leonid Lazarev, the head of the Constitutional Court's law department, says the current constitution does not include any obstacles to the authorities conducting socio-economic reforms.

"The only thing I cannot rule out is that the authorities wish to amend the political articles of the Constitution," Mr. Lazarev said, possibly citing federal election rules. The official believes the document is generally quite flexible, which means norms can be interpreted in various ways, so no one is about to introduce amendments.

The director of the Institute for Applied Politics, Olga Kryshtanovskaya, on the contrary, believes the Russian authorities have "specific plans to make the transition to a parliamentary republic" by discarding popular presidential elections and adopting the German model with a strong chancellor (or prime minister in Russia) and a weak president. The strong premier would be Vladimir Putin. The only question is when this will happen. The Kremlin seems inclined to see 2007 as the date, which means three chambers - the Federation Council, State Duma and the Public Chamber - will endorse the president after the parliamentary elections.