Smolny Beyond Borders

A Liberal Arts Initiative

How do the political scientists who wrote the country’s alternative Constitution see Russia after Putin?

July, 2 – What Happened Podcast Episode 
In Meduza’s podcast “What Happened,” Artemy Magun discusses the draft of the new Constitution of the Russian Federation, written by him together with his colleagues at the Institute of Global Reconstitution.

At the end of June, social researchers Grigory Yudin, Artemy Magun and Evgeny Roshchin presented a draft of an alternative Constitution to Russia. It caused a wide debate, including in the academic community. The project, on the one hand, indirectly indicates how Russia came to autocracy, and on the other hand, it explains what exactly can be done to prevent this from happening again. For example, part of the provisions of the constitutional draft is devoted to the involvement of Russians in public life. Researchers proceed from the idea that the current system is largely based on apathy and atomization of society. What should the Constitution be like for democracy to take hold in Russia? We are discussing with one of the authors of the project Artemy Magun and political scientist Ilya Matveev.