15 years to prepare the 1977 Constitution and 98 days to the vote on the 2020 amendments

The Brezhnev Constitution of 1977 took 15 years to prepare. The decision to draw up a new constitution was taken in the spring of 1962, and the constitutional commission originally numbered 97 members. A draft was ready by the autumn of 1964, but it was not adopted and was sent back for revision. Two years later, 33 of the commission's 97 members were replaced. The heads of the working group charged with preparing the draft changed in 1962, 1968 and 1973. The draft was published on 4 June 1977, that is, 140 days before its final adoption and entry into force, and up to 140 million people could take part in its discussion, albeit only formally.

The first amendments to the current constitution were proposed on 15 January 2020, and a working group of 75 people was formed the same day. On 20 January a bill "On Improving the Regulation of Certain Issues of the Organisation of Public Authority", that is, on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, was submitted to the State Duma, and on 23 January it passed its first reading. A nationwide vote on the amendments is planned for 22 April, that is, 98 days after we first heard of them. The full text of the amendments does not exist as yet, and it is impossible to begin discussing it in any form. Today, for instance, the 83-year-old State Duma deputy Valentina Tereshkova proposed removing the limit on the number of presidential terms, or else allowing the president [the present one] to stand for re-election once the amendments to the constitution have come into force.