Russian president Vladimir Putin has submitted several constitutional proposals to parliament on Monday including one that would change the constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
Reuters reports: “Putin on Monday submitted his constitutional proposals to parliament just before the deadline, RIA cited Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy chairman of the lower house, as saying. ‘For me, the most important one is his proposal to enshrine in basic law the concept of marriage as a union between a man and a woman,' Tolstoy added. Putin said last month Russia would not legalize gay marriage as long as he was in the Kremlin. He said he would not let the traditional notion of a mother and father be subverted by what he called ‘parent number 1' and ‘parent number 2'.
AFP adds: “The new amendments also ban giving away Russian territory and any call promoting such a move would also be outlawed. A member of a Kremlin-appointed constitutional working group, actor Vladimir Mashkov, has suggested that such an amendment would ensure that Russia keeps Crimea — which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — or the Kuril Islands — disputed with Japan for decades — even after Putin quits power.”
