Today we start our course about constitutional reforms in Russia. Through constitutional development of Russian Federation, we will try to analyze what changes in political and economical system of the Russian Federation occurred during the last decades. The law will be those lands through which we will try to analyze these social changes. Maybe you didn't know that the most known and one of the most important persons in the 20th century, history of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Lenin and Mikhail Gorbachev, both were lawyers, and there are reforms which they start in Russia in final, and I mention were somehow reflected in the Russian legislation and in the Russian constitution. Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia today and the leader of Russia in 21st century, is also a lawyer and he was SIU student, he studied in St. Petersburg State University, so, he was gradated from the Law Faculty of this university. And this means that many social changes which occur in Russia more or less are reflected in our Constitution and in our legal system. Through these principles, through those norms which reflect great social changes, we will try to look on how Russian society changed during these great reforms, occurred since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and how it was developed afterwards, the economic and political system in Russia. It is well known opinion that the law does not play an important role in the Russian society, and many people believe that in Russia we don't have any influence of the legal principles on the organization of political and economic life. We will talk about this more detail later, but for starting this talk, I would note that many decisions taken in political and economic sphere in the final form were legal decisions. They were not those legal principles which completely corresponds the legal ideas in the Western democracies, but any decisions which were taken by government organs in the Russian Federation, more or less got the legal form and were reflected in the text of the Constitution and in the text of legislative acts. The Russian Constitutional Court was very much involved in most public discussions on the decisions taken by the Russian authorities, especially during the last years. And these also meant that any decision was examined through the legal principles and legal norms. Any decision which reform political or economic system of the Russian state and of the Russian society, finally was checked by the Constitutional Court and on this matter, all these questions were the issue for legal analysis. This means that we can see on the legal regulation as on the mirror reflecting all the changes occurring in the Russian society, and we will do this in our course. I would mention that the situation in Russia, in the Russian law, in the Russian legal system, sometimes is quite radically different seen from outside Russia and inside Russia. From the outside, many people believe that those reforms which Russia started in 1991, 1993, those reforms which moved Russia to the democracy of Western-type state by the next years, by the end of 20th century, more or less came to the end, and the Russian's political system slipped down to authoritarian organization of the power. And those principles which were declared in the Russian constitution of 1993, they did not really applied and really implemented in the Russian political and legal system. From inside, the situation seen quite different. From inside, the Russian lawyers, and Russian politicians, and many Russian people believe that all these changes which occurred after adoption of the Russian constitution in 1993, they were not change of the basic principles. They were not following some other general approaches, but they differed in interpretation of those basic principles which appeared in the Russian Constitution, comparing to interpretation of the same principles in the Western democracies. And in the Russian society, during 2000 and 2010s, we had a lot of discussions about the special way of implementation of those basic principles in the Russian legal and political system. The same with economic, the Russian approach to organization of economics was different from that in the most states of Western Europe or in the United States, but they were basically the same general principles though they differ in some consequences and in some details of their practical realization. In all this view, in all this approach, we see that inside Russia we still believe that those difficulties which we saw in 1990s, they were a part of quite difficult movement to the democracy. But this movement did not stop, but it continues and it will have the same direction as was defined in the beginning of 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. I would say that we try to analyze those difficulties which greatly influence the Russian society, and the approach, the thinking about democracy in the Russian public opinion, we will try to explain why those difficulties give us grounds to say that we had quite a tough way to democracy, to the rule of law, to human rights protection, but this doesn't mean that we abolish these aims and these principles are still one agenda in Russia. And we try in our course to make it more clear why these difficulties does not abolish the general principles of the Constitution, the general principles of democracy, and we will try to make it in political, economic sphere, we will try to analyze these approaches today.
