Analysts see Putin’s plan to change the constitution as beginning preparations for succession when his current Kremlin term ends in 2024.

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted to parliament a number of constitutional changes, including amendments that mention God and stipulate that marriage is a union of a man and woman.

Putin in January unleashed a political storm by proposing an overhaul of the constitution, the first changes to the basic law since 1993.

Shortly afterward, the lower house unanimously approved the constitutional reform bill in a first reading after less than two hours of debate.
Most Russians identify as Orthodox Christians but Russia is officially a secular state.

Ahead of a second and key reading set for next week, Putin submitted 24 pages worth of new proposals, said State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

“The president’s amendments are the result of his dialogue with representatives of all factions (and) civil society,” he said in comments released by the State Duma.

The amendments enshrine the mention of Russians’ “faith in God” and also stipulate that marriage is a heterosexual union, said Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy.

Most Russians identify as Orthodox Christians but Russia is officially a secular state.

The new amendments also ban giving away Russian territory and any call promoting such a move would also be outlawed.

A member of a Kremlin-appointed constitutional working group, actor Vladimir Mashkov, has suggested that such an amendment would ensure that Russia keeps Crimea — which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — or the Kuril Islands — disputed with Japan for decades — even after.

Tolstoy said he was pleased with the draft legislation.

“I believe that most of the proposals that have been discussed have been taken into account,” he told AFP.

The 67-year-old Putin, who has dominated Russia for 20 years, has sought to cast himself as a defender of traditional values and rally support by promoting anti-Western and conservative ideas.

Putin’s fourth stint in the Kremlin has seen a strong pivot to more conservative policies, with groups promoting fundamentalist Orthodox Christian views gaining more legitimacy and liberal viewpoints attacked as Moscow’s relations with the West have soured.

The second reading of the constitutional reform bill is expected to take place on March 10, said a spokeswoman for Pavel Krasheninnikov, co-chief of the constitutional working group.

The spokeswoman told AFP that the text of the amendments was expected to be published later this week.

A public vote on the constitutional reforms has been set for April 22.

Analysts see Putin’s plan to change the constitution as beginning preparations for succession when his current Kremlin term ends in 2024.

At the weekend more than 22,000 people rallied in central Moscow to call on Putin not to stay in power indefinitely.

Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/russian-president-vladimir-putin-proposes-to-enshrine-god-heterosexual-marriage-in-constitution/articleshow/74448091.cms

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The bill passed the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, unanimously in retaliation of the U.S. government pressuring Russian state-funded TV channel RT – formerly Russia Today – to register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent, the Washington Post reported.

RT will now have to disclose the sources of its funding and activities intended to influence a lawmaker or other government official, the New York Times reported. It remained unclear what the designation will mean for RT’s journalists.

U.S. authorities grew uneasy with RT’s presence following the 2016 presidential election — and allegations that RT tried to discredit Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton while allegedly giving a pass to Republican Donald Trump.

Russian lawmakers didn’t say which specific media organizations would be asked to sign up for “foreign agent” status, saying that would be determined by Russia’s Ministry of Justice.

Media companies designated as foreign agents will have to file a quarterly report on their funding sources and activities to the Russian Justice Ministry. Their produced work will have to say that they are foreign agents in the country, the Times reported.

State-funded U.S. outlets operating in Russia such as Voice of America or Radio Free Europe are among the likely media organizations to be pressured, but the new possible law also covers private media companies, the Post reported.

In fact, the new rule could affect all foreign media outlets operating in Russia in a veiled attempt to crack down on negative coverage of President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

“Numerous independent media in the country get foreign funding,” Tanya Lokshina, the Russia program director at Human Rights Watch, told the Times. “The foreign funding could become a pretext to crack down on them. It is just shockingly disproportionate and broad. The way it is written now, it appears it could be used for many different purposes.”

The lawmakers, however, were reluctant to pass the bill, saying they were forced after U.S. officials pressured RT.

“We didn’t want to pass this law,” Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy speaker of Parliament, told the Times. “This is a law that might not have existed. In Russia, we never took measures limiting freedom of speech in any of its forms.”

Dmitri S. Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, said that “any encroachment on the freedom of Russian media abroad is not and won’t be left without a strong condemnation,” according to the Times.

The measure now awaits to be approved by the Russian Senate and signed by Putin. The Russian leader reportedly expressed some concerns about the bill and its extensive scope.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/16/russian-lawmakers-pass-bill-requiring-overseas-media-to-register-as-foreign-agents.html

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