[JURIST] Russian president Dmitry Medvedev [official profile; JURIST news archive] Wednesday proposed constitutional amendments extending the presidential term from four to six years, and the term of members of the State Duma [official website, in Russian] from four to five years. The proposed amendments would change Article 81(1) [text] and Article 96(1) [text] of the Russian Constitution [text], the first changes to that document since it replaced its Soviet-era predecessor [text, in Russian] in 1993. Medvedev made the proposals during his first state of the nation address [text] to the Federal Assembly, saying that they would promote the effective implementation of necessary reforms. He cast the term extensions as "clarifications":

We are not talking about constitutional reform but about a correction to the constitution; about important, but refining amendments that do not touch the political and legal essence of the existing institutes.