Co-author of Russian Constitution dies

One of the co-authors of Russia’s Constitution, former lawmaker Viktor Sheinis, died on Sunday, his Yabloko party announced.

The veteran politician was 92 years old, the party said on its website, adding that details on his funeral will be published later.

Sheinis was born in 1931 in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. He studied in Leningrad (now St Petersburg), graduating from Leningrad State University. He then pursued both academic and political careers, becoming a doctor of economics in 1982.

In 1990, Sheinis was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Soviet Republic, which was renamed the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia the following year, after the collapse of the USSR.

In 1992-93, he held the post of Deputy Executive Secretary of the Constitutional Commission of the Congress. In that role, he took part in drawing up Russia’s new principal law, which was adopted following a referendum in 1993, replacing the Soviet Constitution.

In the same year, Sheinis became one of the founders of the liberal Yabloko party, and was viewed as being among its main ideologues. He held a seat in two iterations of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, for Yabloko between 1992 and 1994. Later on, the veteran politician occupied various posts in the opposition party, which is not currently represented in parliament.