On November 23, 2000 the representatives of Yabloko and the SPS officially submitted to the State Duma a draft Civil Procedural Code of the Russian Federation.

The legislative initiative was written by Igor Artemyev, Sergei Popov (both from the Yabloko faction) and Viktor Pokhmelkin (the SPS faction). The draft code was developed by a group of experts under the Yabloko faction under the guidance of the Deputy Head for Legislative Work of the Yabloko faction Igor Artemyev.

He expressed his opinion that in a favourable situation this code could be adopted within a year. Artemyev also noted that a broad discussion of this document was required and that the draft code would soon be submitted to the Supreme and Arbitration Court of the RF, Administration of the President, the Federation Council and "possibly to Moscow State University and St. Petersburg University.”

The initiators of the new code, justifying the need for the development of this new code note that the present code effective since the beginning of 1960s is absolutely obsolete. The experts think that despite the amendments made over the past years, it does not meet the modern requirements of legal proceedings.

In March 1999 the Plenum of the Supreme Court submitted by a Resolution submitted to the State Duma a draft of amendments and supplements to the

Civil Procedural Code of the RSFSR, and indicated in an explanatory note

that many of the provisions of the code contradict the present Constitution of the RF and federal laws adopted in accordance with the Constitution, as well as contain obsolete terminology, “which creates large problems over its application and reduces the efficiency of civil legal proceedings,” noted the initiators of this draft. They think that “any further patchwork corrections to the Civil Procedural Code of the RSFSR, further attempts to amend its evident drawbacks do not represent a constructive way or resolving the problem.” Consequently the Yabloko and SPS factions decided to submit their variant of the Civil Procedural Code.

Based on Interfax reports.