Extracts from the Speech of D.Medvedev at Educational and Research Conference marking the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Russian Constitution’s Adoption

December 12, 2008
The Kremlin, Moscow

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good afternoon, dear friends and colleagues,

First of all, I want to wish everyone my sincere congratulations on our Constitution’s fifteenth anniversary. It is my firm conviction that this is not just a significant date but also an event of fundamental historic importance.

On December 12, 1993, our country adopted a fundamentally new Constitution for the first time in its history, a Constitution that recognized individuals and their rights and freedoms as the highest value, laid the foundations of a democratic order in Russia and bound the state to observe and protect these new basic values in practice.

The adoption of the Russian Constitution marked a turning point in modern Russia’s history. It was approved by the people’s will and thus signified a decisive and defining choice in favour of free and progressive development, a radical change in political and economic relations in favour of a social state and fair society, the high status of the law and independent courts, and the development of genuine federalism and full-fledged local self-government.

The Constitution was born out of public consensus, genuine public consensus on the direction the country’s long-term development should take. The situation was very complicated at the time and the Constitution’s adoption took place in the midst of far from simple political processes, but it nevertheless became the platform setting out our values for the decades to come, and it brought new stability to the state’s foundations, thus opening up the road to free development for each individual and for society as a whole. This is what makes it so different to constitutions of the preceding period.

The years that have passed by, for all their difficulties, have made clear the Constitution’s tremendous potential and have confirmed its balanced influence on the development of all forms of property in our country, effective use of budget funds, the development of economic relations in general, consolidation of social institutions, the civil service and the provision of public services, and indeed on practically every area of life that has a direct relation to people’s everyday needs and their development demands.

The Constitution needs to genuinely grow and develop and make its effect felt on how laws are adopted, how they are applied in practice, and all government decisions and civil society initiatives. Only in this way can its potential be fully realized, and only in this way can we achieve the strategic development goals it proclaims.

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