A New Power Institution, Constitutional Assembly, May Appear In Russia

Speaker of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Gennady Seleznyov came out, during the parliamentary hearings on Tuesday, for the earliest possible adoption of the law "On the Constitutional Assembly". He stressed that the introduction of this institution in Russia would become an "important democratic standard." According to the speaker, the prerogative of the Constitutional Assembly should be either to re-affirm the norms of the now applicable Constitution or to prepare a draft of a new fundamental law of the country. Seleznyov believes that the number of the Constitutional Assembly's members, necessary to ensure its normal work should be determined legislatively. The same is true of "its relations with the Russian parliament so as to avoid dual power". Two draft laws would be discussed during the parliamentary hearings. One of them stipulates direct election to the Constitutional Assembly, and the other offers to include in it the Russian president, members of the Federation Council (the upper house of parliament), judges of the Constitutional Court, chairman of the Supreme Court and chairman of the Higher Court of Arbitration.