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Constitution of Russia

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Constitution of Russia

The Constitution of the Russian Federation (Russian: Конституция Российской Федерации, romanizedKonstitutsiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii) was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993 and enacted on 25 December 1993. The latest significant reform occurred in 2020, marked by extensive amendments that altered various sections, including presidential terms, social policies, and the role of Russian law over international ones. (See 2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia).

Russia's constitution came into force on 25 December 1993, at the moment of its official publication, and abolished the Soviet system of government. The 1993 Constitution is one of the longest-standing constitutions in Russian history, second only to the Soviet Union’s 1936 Constitution, which was in effect until 1977.

The text was drafted by the 1993 Constitutional Conference, which was attended by over 800 participants. Sergei Alexeyev, Sergey Shakhray, and sometimes Anatoly Sobchak are considered as the primary co-authors of the constitution. The text was inspired by Mikhail Speransky's constitutional project and the current French constitution. The USAID-funded lawyers also contributed to the development of the draft.

It replaced the previous Soviet-era Constitution of 12 April 1978, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (which had already been amended in April 1992 to reflect the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the sovereignty of the Russian Federation), following the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis.

The constitution is divided into two sections. Overall it creates a system of crown-presidentialism (see Partlett 2022 for details), which affords vast power to the office of the president to dominate executive, legislative, and judicial power.

We, the multinational people of the Russian Federation, united by a common fate on our land, establishing human rights and freedoms, civic peace and accord, preserving the historically established state unity, proceeding from the universally recognized principles of equality and self-determination of peoples, revering the memory of ancestors who have conveyed to us the love for the Fatherland, belief in the good and justice, reviving the sovereign statehood of Russia and asserting the firmness of its democratic basic, striving to ensure the well-being and prosperity of Russia, proceeding from the responsibility for our Fatherland before the present and future generations, recognizing ourselves as part of the world community, adopt the Constitution of Russian Federation.

Especially on human rights and fundamental freedoms, the Constitution provides for human rights and freedoms of citizens according to the universally recognised principles and norms of international law as well as to their listing in the Constitution. (It affirms that the listing in the Constitution of the Russian Federation of the fundamental rights and freedoms shall not be interpreted as a rejection and derogation of other universally recognised human rights and freedoms.)

The Constitution of the Russian Federation specifies that the President is the Russian head of state, setting domestic and foreign policy and representing Russia both within the country and internationally [Article 80]. While the original constitution stipulated a four-year term and a maximum of two terms in succession, the current constitution decrees a six-year term. The four-year term was in effect while Vladimir Putin served his first and second terms; with the two-term limit, he was barred from the presidency in 2008. Instead, he served as Prime Minister while Dmitry Medvedev served as president for four years. Putin was re-elected to his third term in 2012; with the six-year term, he was elected to his fourth term in 2018. Article 81 specifies the method of election, including a secret ballot; Articles 82–93 detail powers, responsibilities, and limitations of the presidency. The constitution provides for a "strong presidency"; not only is the president the "Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation", the president also has the power to dissolve the State Duma.

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