RUSSIALINK: “Russia has much work to do to build democracy ‘on ruins of socialism’ – Zorkin” – Interfax

ST. PETERSBURG. May 16 (Interfax) – Russia will need to make a “breakthrough into a lawful future” soon, Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin said.

“Russia still has a lot to do on the path of affirming the legal democratic foundations of state and public life. A crucial factor in their formation is the equality of everyone before the law and court, equal rights, political competition, competition among political parties for votes, and the overcoming of egregious social inequality,” Zorkin said at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum on Thursday.

He said that, metaphorically speaking, Russia had once made an attempt to leap from historical “winter” to “summer” while pretending that the whole clock for this time didn’t exist. “Thus, the old world was ruined down to its foundations” but “our new” modern, modernist society, i.e., a rational one, based on the lawful principles of equality and fairness, was never built,” Zorkin said.

“Now we have to do this quickly on the ruins of socialism and literally break through into a lawful future. There is very little historical time allotted to us for that. We have to try to make it,” he said.

[featured image is file photo]