This is r. T. International. To the countrys constitution the package includes more than 100. 00 provisions some of which have been widely criticised today both online and early voting has begun all leading up to next wednesdays general vote. Has delved deeper. 7 days of voting and now underway across russia cross 97000 polling stations set up for this vote and you know Vladimir Putin he never misses an opportunity to remind everyone how the world is changing how quickly its changing and how important are these for russia to stay ahead of the curve these obviously these changes of what the government of visions is paving the path for russia to stay ahead of that curve. Tell you how important how much is at stake here the fact that theyre holding them now just as russia begins to emerge from the quote of ours pandemic. Have been lifted across the country nevertheless there are hotspots where the situation is east still severe which is why there are so many mechanisms in procedures now in place to guarantee that this would ease primarily safe to minimize the potential transmissions and infections to the loo is possible and theres all sorts of Long Distance routing there is in house moves theres also for the 1st time online voting mass online voting people can register move all apps and vote a 1000000 people have registered so far though a number of applications have been declined jute to detail errors for example Incorrect Information incorrect Contact Details nevertheless people have been able to register successfully as i said theres a lot of polarization many people have come out against this route nobody will always be happy the communists for example their followers. But against the changes saying that they will commit continue to campaign against these changes and what they entailed even during the voting. We submitted 108. 00. Amendments but alas the Ruling United Russia Party rejected them whats the point of changing the constitution if we keep on keeping for a resource based economy if we choose not to teach children subjects relevant to today or to support science so whats the point to prolong his term. The more radical opposition those against the government and everything anything to do with the government they say that the vote simply isnt necessary that the amendments are bad news and at the end of the day they dont even believe that the vote will be fair something that organizers have told us simply isnt true. Our main goal is the health and safety of our citizens ferreting is safe i think going to the shops or walking in the park there is no obligation for it and no one will know which way he wrote it hence people should feel free to come in in whatever way they want if they decide to vote at all we welcome everyone all the critics the doubters the skeptics. The votes was originally supposed to happen in april 1 day in april but because of the pandemic obviously it was postponed and now it is being stretched out over a 7 day period in order to prevent lines in crowds from forming again to minimise transmission to make it see through all sorts of restrictions in place and how many people can be in voting stations at any one time nevertheless according to polls 67 percent of russians voice their intent to go and vote in these amendments 20 percent still undecided and just 30 percent have said that they dont plan on going to vote weve also put together this video of this keep here to show you what are these that has sued people in russia it was january when president putin stunned russia by proposing changes to the countrys Foundation Law the constitution within hours the entire government had resigned. Constitution dates back to 993. 00 to west and back president Boris Yeltsin built from the debut of the communist soviet era yeltsins constitution created what would be criticized as a hyper president ial system the president called all the shots and it was forged in bloodshed as a hostile communist control parliament trying to impeach yeltsin he resorted to the military to keep in power. 187 people were killed that autumn. One of the most important proposals today is to end that hyper president ial system while keeping the fundamentals of the constitution intact so what powers does the president currently have only he alone can nominate the Prime Minister and other cabinet Members Parliament just gives a formal green light to the candidates. The proposal would flip that giving parliament the final say on who serves in government and the president would not be able to reject the m. P. s choices. Powers would be redistributed between various branches of government intended to lock in more checks and balances into russias government system another big change would limit the president s tenure to only 2 terms in total as opposed to no more than 2 terms in a row as it is now. That means future leaders wont be able to serve for as long as putin has. But its not a member which has got western media excited perceived trick to stay in power forever the existing rules say putin must stand aside in 4 years time after his 2nd consecutive term albeit his 4th mandate in total m. P. s are pushing a proposal to 0 out his term count a reset button for an updated constitution i propose to add to the you can situation the current president like any other citizen would have the right to be elected to the post of head of the state that would mean putin could run again in 2024 and in 2030 if he wants to rewind back to january why putin said he wanted to change the constitution he says its to develop a welfare state. The reason for these amendments is to ensure the further development of russia as a state governed by the rule of law to increase the efficiency of institutions in our country with that in mind the room more than one 140. 00 amendments one guarantees that the minimum wage will not be lower than the cost of living another secures an annual adjustment to improve the real value of pensions and allowances that would also be tougher requirements for Civil Servants such as banning key officials from having foreign citizenship or Foreign Bank Accounts that would also be a ban on giving away any russian territory and a priority to domestic law over international there are some controversial proposals to marriage would be classified solely as a union between a man and a woman and god gets mentioned all the constitution will still say russia is officially a secular state its an all or nothing vote russians wont be able to pick and choose which of the amendments they want to see its simply a yes or a no to the whole package and the changes will only be enacted if the russian people give it an unequivocal mandate. If people do not vote for the amendments they will not be added to the constitution. You know diversity is a professor at the National Institute of languages and eastern civilizations and has been. On the line now very good afternoon to breena 1st of all is it necessary why is it necessary to change the 193 constitution. Forward several reasons 1st of all as you told earlier in this program the constitution was not very legitimate since it was the result of Something Like a civil war in moscow in 1903 and does was the always block. Moment of the russian history so its obvious it is good for russia to to read legitimize its constitution 2nd i think that you know russia is now in a situation is in difficult situation since the whole world situation is bad the economy good situation political situation and so on and the social situation in russia is not sought good so in a certain sense its its useful for putin to really did demise the institutions before the crisis that will happen to world economical crisis that will happen and to give some answers to the society to the Russian Society and india management we are we are observing a lot of different think that can fit to different. Part of the Russian Society the more conservative one the more liberal one the more leftist wonder more rightist one and in a certain sense these are amendment are very balanced to a certain extent so to speak to a religion to made the institution not only the presidency but also the duma and the council of for the ration what about the fact there are 140. 00 amendments in the proposed constitution i mean voters might be fundamentally opposed to some of those and completely in support of others and yet they have to vote yes or no to the whole lot is that an ideal system. Thats of course. Complicated but there is some logic been behind this you can like it or not but there is some logic in it it means that russian will have to kyons. Der best solution out of the out of all the amendments they will have in front of them and to a certain extent i think the plan is that russian should. At least be satisfied by some amendment. Taking into account that Russian Society now is a very Pluralistic Society its not a monolithic society so to a certain extent the idea to have so many amendments. Isnt i know kasian to create Something Like a National Compromise system. In terms of the powers of parliament some debate over whether parliament is actually going to get more powers because of this constitution and should it get more power. Apparently it will have because the Prime Minister will be more dependent on the on the duma saw to a certain extent duma will be a something in teach you more powerful down here and your earlier even if. Of course russia still will be a president ial country. Which is of course something girling to is the history of russia and if the communists criticize darter taking into account. Their former tradition which was the tradition of the. Post revolutionary soviets but in the same time soviet union was also a state a very autocratic early governed during the. Stalin times when the 3rd sense they are put in a situation quite difficult because to which. Tradition of communism they refer but didnt put them in a strange lets say situation so they have to want to fight against a constitution. And in the same time they hold the portrait of stallion and part of the argument of having a new constitution is meeting with the times at the same time as that though theres a theres an amendment in there saying that marriage can only be between a man and a woman so effectively is opposing same sex marriage thats going to open russia up to criticism saying that the nation is homophobic so its not a backward step at the same point. But the question is not homophobia the question is does Russian Society is a traditionally Oriented Society that the fact that Russian Society is morally conservative. Doug doesnt mean that they are. All a homophobic but that you know they dont agree with. Western point of view like most societies in the world i mean Asian SocietyAfrican SocietyLatin American Society are higher have been the same the same. Opinion concerning disk this issue as russian do have poles do have ukrainian do have a service do have a greig do have and so on and so on so id rather the Western Point of view which is quite isolated whatever you think about it the Western Point of view is isolated in the whole world places and the un thanks so much for an adverse k. Perfessor the National Institute of languages and eastern civilization. Weve heard of our streets in the east in russia mounties welcome this 1st official guest in months with the hunger in foreign minister dropping by have a chat with our correspondent in a patrol about hungarys decision to rule by decree during the pandemic. All fine. And. Well actually it will be really for. Their. National. Everybody. So it will very well everybodys and. Russia will be having your will russia be the favorite. Now going into the. War is really really good this point right at this point whats going on with mr or powers to rule by decree a state of emergency allowed us to make decrees like in every other e. U. Member states every other e. U. Member states what was the problem of the opposition they said and liberal mainstream in europe they said that there is no concrete date of conclusion in the law which allowed us to govern by decrees we said of course there is no other concrete theyd because who knows when. Allow us to come back to normality when it comes. Decision making so what we have done now we seized we concluded the state of emergency less than 90 days opposition demand it 120 had the beginning now it took less than 90 days so this is number one number 2 when it comes to the special economy zones yes we made the decree but but in the meantime we submitted it to parliament as well so parliament can make a law on that because yes of course it entered into force quickly but parliament should approve that i think is a very democracy way of of of managing things. The wiki leaks founder Julian Assange is currently fighting extradition to the United States is facing fresh allegations from the department of justice that accuses him of trying to recruit hackers to gain access to classified information corresponded to stash he has more. Judas and is yet another step closer to being sent to the United States as new allegations against him have said this has been outlined in an updated indictment today richly expanded has now been accused of providing a hit list of targets as he allegedly conspired with hackers all around the wells he said to try to recruit how because at a conference in europe and wanted a nation i did anything but activists online from groups intruding and not invest in pursuit of this classified information to the ricky makes website now thats all according to the Us Government publishes a certain documents and there arent the new indictment does not add additional counts to the pry 18 count superseding indictment returned against the song jane may 29th t. He does however broaden the scope of the conspiracy surrounding alleged computer intrusions with which a song was previously challenged according to the charging document a soldier and others at weeki leaks recruited and agreed with hackers to commit to computer intrusions to benefit wiki leaks as such as a cause wanted by the United States and is currently in custody in the United Kingdom battling against this expedition to america which hasnt died on the 17 karens under the espionage act one today struck on to science and publishing classified military documents all that i did to the war in iraq and afghanistan plus one compare conspiracy to how a government computer to publish these secret documents that this latest new indictment does not actually add to this very have to less than a dozen 2 new claims against eunice are between the 20092012 now the United States describes all of this is one of the knowledge of compromises of classified information in history and if convicted youre innocent could be sentenced up to a 175 years in prison now some say his crimes of whistle blowing was in fact a National Security risk but Many Campaign to say all of this extradition proceedings should all be dropped because there is no. That you know 1 well face trial in the United States and they believe hes a valiant campaign at the truth the Drama Department of justice a term to imprison drew in the sun for walking with your source to publish classified documents that exposed years war crimes is the most severe us throat to breath through them since 2016 that 1st thing didnt work lets try another you scumbags let the journalist have his liberty i wouldnt dog of the department of justice decided to shooting dice mint just days before julians next procedural hearing aspired to finance a Smear Campaign against him for serious action started back into the public april when he was also been told londons dorian and this is by British Police when he was seeking political asylum from are said to end of days which is almost 7 years he then began serving a 15 week sentence in the u. K. Spell more prison skipping in 2012 but his treatment on the way has long been called into question and this represents just theres a case of torture and mistreatment and 3 of us are just noise so this is 80 allegations is yet another blow to journalists while wise. To stop and speaking out the governments relentless pursuit of juden assigns poses a great threat to journalists everywhere and to the publics right to know well today superseding indictment is yet another chapter in the u. S. Governments effort to persuade the public that its pursuit of Julian Assange is based on something other than his publication of news worth the truthful information the indictment continues to charge him with violating the espionage act based on we can explode locations exposing were crimes committed by the Us Government. But of top of all of this the u. K. Broke in and now that extradition request comes often interpol red notice was issued for the u. S. National security as it was now wanted in connection to the killing 19 year olds have done here of course died after graduation or protein shed and seclude as you will find that will is accused of dangerous driving the u. S. Is now said that its decision to refuse an execution to request was final even though downing street this a refusal and denial of justice thats an opinion of course how by how we dance our own mother she says she will not stop till she gets justice for her son and for her family. This sundays. Harry the night. Sleep the number one. Draw