Lecture by Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation Russian Law: Alternatives and Risks During a Global Crisis

Key conclusions

Russia is fighting a special military operation against the West and not Ukraine

“The West has, in fact, unleashed an unprecedented hybrid or, to be more precise, systemic war against Russia: in the military-industrial complex, the economy, politics, culture, sports, science, education, media, and cyberspace. […] They are fighting against all Russians and not just Russia as a country. [...] We are no longer fighting against Ukraine, we are fighting against the West as a whole,” Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

PROBLEMS

Russia has to politically and legally rethink the principles it will live by and streamline the legal direction of the country’s development in the face of sanctions

“The West [...] for the sake of victory [...] has hastened to abandon all its own centuries-old legal achievements and has begun to profess, I emphasise, a more militant, overt, or even unbridled anti-Russian Nazism, [...] increasingly gaining masses in the countries of Europe that not so long ago were still so tolerant. We are now beginning to live in a completely new world in a state of struggle with the West, almost completely devoid of the moral, ethical, and legal fundamentals that predominated before. And we need to assess this fact morally and legally and also rethink politically and legally the conditions and principles we now intend to live by,” Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

“Now about our domestic legal problems – [...] [we must – Ed.] streamline the legal direction of Russia’s development. [...] We are entering a qualitatively new economic reality. Russia will have to live under the most severe economic sanctions and international isolation from the West. To live and develop,” Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

SOLUTIONS

The need for legal mobilization and expanding individual legal freedom in business

“What we need more than anything else now is legal mobilization. Not in the sense of toughening legislative measures, but in the sense of more fully fleshing out the essence of law as an equal measure of freedom. Even if at this stage in its history the country is forced to separate itself [...] from unfriendly countries, it is possible and necessary, I would even say vital, that we create the conditions for emancipating the free, creative activity of the people. [...] Russia can only respond effectively to these challenges by expanding individual legal freedom in business. [...] And lawyers must take part in this work,” Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

“We need big owners to take major steps towards satisfying social expectations, [...] the time has come for big Russian business to prove its national character to society,” Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

Setting up fences is a path to stagnation, isolation must be avoided and a reasonable balance struck between insularity and openness

“It should also be understood that power isolationism in an autonomous fortress state is simply not possible in today’s world. Fencing off the outside world with a new, voluntarily constructed iron curtain is a direct path to stagnation, a path to the periphery and the outskirts of world development. Moreover, looking at today’s reality, I would ask if it wasn’t the West that was trying to build precisely this kind of curtain around us? That is why it is vital for us to adapt and not to isolate ourselves totally from unfriendly countries. And to stand apart, first of all, in information and ideology, which [exerts – Ed.] a hostile influence on Russia’s younger generation – most pronouncedly and dangerously. And to maintain trade relations.  […] That is, to seek, control, and maintain a reasonable balance of insularity and openness,” Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

Education system reform and the market economy

“We need to fundamentally reform Russia’s systems of mass, secondary, higher, and special education and upbringing, without which we simply will not be able to solve the tasks set for accelerated, advanced technological development in the country, without which it will simply not be possible to ensure a deep and broad legal mobilization for the upcoming, let’s face it, great struggle with [...] the West,” Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

“Another crucial question that will arise and that must be answered is the question of how to preserve the market nature of the economy. There is a fairly widespread perception that we will have to return to rigid socialist-style planning in conditions of economic isolation. […] A free market with private initiative, supplemented by some socialist elements from the outside, is a very realistic model of a legal economy in the new environment.  […] Obviously, we won’t be returning to the Soviet economic model,” Valery Zorkin, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

Read more in the Roscongress Foundation Information and Analytical System roscongress.org

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