It is believed that the basic law is adopted for a long period of existence of the state. But the country must develop, therefore, it is necessary to provide for amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. A country cannot live according to outdated rules. Here, for example, the territory is growing, new regions need to be included in the basic law. Indeed, not so long ago, all the people of the planet, who with excitement, others with hope, others with hatred, watched such a process. Do you know how changes are being made to the Constitution of the Russian Federation? If you don’t know, then let's briefly understand.
Change Procedure
The basic law of the Russian Federation refers to mixed constitutions. And this means that not all chapters change according to the same procedure. In principle, a simplified procedure is provided only for the 65th article containing a list of subjects of the federation. By the way, they have used it more than once. In order to make amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, it is enough to approve the text by the already existing body - the Federal Assembly. It issues a law regarding changes, then it is signed by the president of the country. This process is called amendment.
The bulk of the constitution is changing much more complicated. For this, it is necessary first of all to create another body - the Constitutional Assembly. It, according to the law, initiates the publication of a new edition. This collegial body is not entitled to adopt amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. This responsibility lies with the whole people. That is, the new edition must be approved at a referendum, by the will of all citizens. This procedure is provided for chapters 1, 2, and 9, in which the foundations of the current system of Russia are fixed.
Changes to the Constitution of the Russian Federation introduced after 1993
Despite the difficulties in the procedure, the text of the basic law is edited from time to time. For the most part, the amendments are technical in nature. They represent changes to the Constitution of the Russian Federation relating to the names of subjects of the federation. So, the first revision is dated January 9, 1996.
According to this amendment, the names of two constituent entities of the federation were changed: the Republic of Ingushetia and North Ossetia (Alania - new edition). Since 1993, only nine such corrections have been made. All of them relate to territorial transformations. In some cases, the subjects were renamed, in others they were enlarged. For example, in 2005, two autonomous districts (Taimyr and Evenki) entered the Krasnoyarsk Territory. More serious are the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation in connection with Crimea. This was the first case in recent history of the expansion of the state. Let's consider it separately.
Crimean changes to the fundamental law
The Constitution of the Russian Federation is drawn up in such a way as to prevent accidental, rash decisions on amendments to its text. A fairly simple procedure is provided only for technical or internal changes relating to existing federation entities. This made it possible to quite legally and legitimately add two new ones.
Crimea as part of unitary Ukraine was an autonomous republic. This region had its own constitution and legislative body - the Supreme Council. These circumstances allowed the people in a critical situation to declare independence. From a legal point of view, everything was completely legal. Despite constant attempts to curtail the rights of Crimeans, the Ukrainian authorities did not deprive them of the opportunity to influence their fate. The parliament of the peninsula asked the Russian Federation to be included in the state, which was approved in the manner prescribed in the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
Other changes
Some amendments raised other issues of the organization of governance in the country. So, in 2008, the term of the president was changed. This initiative was made by the then acting head of state - D.A. Medvedev. The term of office has changed from four to six years. And the deputies of the State Duma since then are elected by five. Previously, their powers expired after four years. Such changes in the country allow people to do more at their posts, in addition, the issue of saving budget funds is also important. A lot of money is spent on elections.
If we talk about all the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation over 10 years, then there are not very many of them. Of the fundamentally different ones, we did not indicate only one more edition of the text that occurred in the same 2008. The legislator obliged the government to report officially on work. Now the executive branch is holding an answer to the State Duma every year about what has been done, why not everything works, and so on.
Conclusion
The Constitution is the most important document in a democratic country. But it cannot be static, fixed for centuries. Life requires that the rules be flexible, change and adapt to the main progressive trends in the development of society. Otherwise, there will be no forward movement. The country will freeze in an existing position and slide into regression. Therefore, the basic law provides for amendments to it.