Russian leader Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in the need for adopted amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. In an interview with the program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin ”on the TV channel“ Russia-1 ”the president noted that he was“ absolutely convinced ”of the correctness of this step.

“These amendments will strengthen our statehood and will create conditions for the progressive development of our country for decades to come,” he said.

During the conversation, Putin noted that the initiative to amend the Basic Law related to the inviolability of the country's borders came from members of the working group and citizens themselves. 

“A moment connected with the inviolability of our borders and our territory, with the impossibility of tearing away our territories. There was nothing like this, but it should be. I didn’t come up with this, by the way, during the work on the amendments (by the way, almost nine hundred of them were submitted) ... the citizens themselves suggested the members of the corresponding working group, ”Putin said.

The head of state added that several editions of the Constitution of the USSR, which spelled out the right to secession of republics from the Union, as well as the monopoly of the Communist Party to power, contained a “time bomb”.

Answering the question of what mistakes of the past he would like to avoid, Putin reminded that after the 1917 revolution there was a discussion in the country about “how to restore statehood”, and the “Leninist thesis on the right of the Union republics to exit” was enshrined in the 1922 union treaty from a single state. "

“Lenin rushed with this idea since 1908-1909. It all proceeded from the idea of ​​the right of a nation to self-determination and then transformed into state-building in such a way that when creating a single state, the Soviet Union (in fact, it was a question of restoring historical Russia within its former borders), the newly created union republics had the right to exit from it, ”the president said.

He noted that Joseph Stalin adhered to a different point of view and declared the need for autonomy of national associations, advocated their inclusion in the RSFSR as autonomies. As a result, Lenin’s idea was realized and the right to withdraw from the Union was fixed in the 1922 Treaty on the Formation of the USSR.

Putin drew attention to the fact that later these provisions “began to wander from the Constitution to the Constitution of the Soviet period”, while the procedure for secession from the Union was not prescribed.

“The question arises: if this or that republic became part of the Soviet Union, but received a huge amount of Russian lands, traditional Russian historical territories, and then suddenly decided to leave the Union? Well, at least then I went out with what I came, and I would not have brought gifts from the Russian people with me. After all, none of this was spelled out, ”the president emphasized.

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The Russian leader added that the 1977 Constitution of the USSR, as in the previous ones, stipulated the Communist Party's exclusive monopoly on power, and therefore the party became the core of the state system and linked its group interests with the interests of the whole country. As a result, when the party "by itself, without any external blows, began to crumble from within, the country also began to crumble behind it."

“This is absolutely unacceptable. This is the time bomb laid in 1922 during the formation of the Soviet Union, and then in the subsequent Constitutions of the 24th, 36th, and 77th years. We must avoid such things, ”he stressed.

Recall, on July 3, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the official publication of the Constitution, as amended, which entered into force the next day.

During the all-Russian vote, amendments to the Constitution of the country were supported by 77.92% of Russians with a total turnout of 67.97%.

The amendments, in particular, stipulate in the Basic Law the mandatory indexation of pensions, benefits and other social benefits, it also states that the minimum wage cannot be lower than the subsistence level. In addition, a provision is fixed on the succession of Russia to the USSR, the status of the Russian language as the language of a state-forming people, a member of the multinational union of equal peoples of Russia. Children are declared the most important public policy priority.