Russian MPs have voted in favor of a bill to amend the country's Constitution. The changes include broadening the powers of parliament as well as limiting the number of lifetime presidential terms for one person.President Putin also rejected an initiative for early elections which was a point of contention among some MPs:
The bill was supported by 382 deputies during the second and main reading on Tuesday. 44 MPs abstained from the vote, mostly members of the opposition Communist party.
Russians will head to the polls to vote on the proposed constitutional changes on April 22. Amendments to the country's' principal law, among other things, include redistributing some powers away from the president to the Duma, restricting the president to two overall terms, banning officials from having foreign citizenship and setting the minimum wage above the basic cost of living.
During his speech in the parliament's lower house (Duma), Putin pointed out that this was "long overdue."
The changes are aimed at strengthening the country's sovereignty and traditions, while creating the conditions for "for steady, positive, evolutionary development of Russia in the long-term historical perspective."
Vladimir Putin said he saw no need to hold snap parliamentary elections after the adoption of proposed amendments to Russia's Constitution. The idea had been floated on Tuesday in the lower house of the Russian parliament.
If there's a lack of consensus on the issue among MPs and "there's no such unity as the chairman [of the Parliament Vyacheslav Volodin] told me than I don't see any need for an early election to the State Duma," Putin said in an address parliament on Tuesday.
The proposed amendments to the Constitution will transfer some of the presidential powers to the parliament, thus raising the question: "Does this State Duma in its current composition have the right to take on those new responsibilities?" he said.
But if the people, who go to the polls on April 22, back those amendments then they'll confirm the Duma's new authority.MP Alexander Karelin, from the ruling United Russia party, who came up with the idea of a snap election, removed his motion from consideration by the Duma after Putin's address.The people are the only source of power and if they say so the issue will be off the table.
Earlier on Tuesday, the three-time Olympic wrestling champion argued that "it would be only fair" to hold a new vote as the president is looking to increase the role of the parties in ruling the country.
State Duma veteran Vladimir Zhirinovky of the Liberal Democratic Party, who was initially supportive of Karelin's proposal, joked that Putin's words became a huge relief for some of his colleagues who were "close to a heart attack" due to the possibility of an early election.
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"soldiers of the caliphate targeted the inauguration of the tyrant (Ashraf Ghani) near the presidential residence in the (fourth) district of the city of Kabul with ten rockets, and the injury was delivered, praise be to God."The blasts came as the country is struggling to overcome ongoing unrest in the wake of a historic peace deal signed by the United States and the Taliban.
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