Central Election Committee of Russia refused to conduct a national referendum on allowing the third term of presidency. The question proposed for voting was worded as follows: "Do You agree that one and the same person may hold the office of the President of the Russian Federation for more than two consecutive terms?”

It should be noted that the proposal to conduct a referendum was introduced by the Central Election Committee of South Asetia-Alania. As stated in the verdict of the CEC of the Russian Federation, Article 81 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides that one and the same person may not hold the office of the President of Russian Federation for more than two consecutive terms. "Thus, the positive answer to the question which was proposed for the national referendum is itself the endorsement of the current constitutional norm", as noted by the CEC. According to the logics of the commission, constitutional norms are not subject to additional validation, such as, for instance, referenda.

In connection with all the abovementioned, the committee noted that the question proposed may not be submitted to a referendum. A CEC member Liudmila Kuliasova stated that, according to a federal law "On the Referendum of the Russian Federation", a decision passed at the referendum is recognized only when more than a half of those taking part in it answer positively to the question of the referendum. At the same time, if the absolute majority of voters answer "No" to the question of a referendum the decision remains pendant. Thus, whatever the decision passed at the referendum would be, it would not bring in legal consequences.