The Federal Assembly, the Parliament of the Russian Federation, is the supreme legislative body of the Russian Federation. The Federal Assembly consists of two chambers: the Federation Council and the State Duma. The State Duma is elected for a term of four years. It consists of 450 deputies. From 2007 all deputies are elected in proportion to the number of votes cast for the lists of candidates nominated by political parties. The Federation Council consists of two representatives from each subject of the federation, one from the representative and one from the executive bodies of the State authority.
Deputies to the Federation Council and deputies to the State Duma possess immunity throughout their term in office. A deputy may not be detained, arrested or searched except when detained in the act of perpetrating a crime, and may not be subject to personal search except when such search is authorised by law to ensure safety of other people. The question of stripping a deputy of immunity is decided on the recommendation of the Prosecutor-General of the Russian Federation by the corresponding chamber of the Federal Assembly.
The Government consists of the Chairman of the Government, the Deputy Chairman of the Government and Federal Ministers. The Chairman is appointed by the President with consent of the State Duma. If the State Duma thrice rejects candidates for the Chairman of the Government nominated by the President, the President appoints a Chairman of the Government, dissolves the State Duma and calls a new election.
The Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation is a single centralised system in which lower prosecutors are subordinated to higher prosecutors and the Prosecutor-General. The Prosecutor-General is appointed to the post and relieved from it by the Federation Council on nomination by the President. Prosecutors are appointed by the Prosecutor-General.
Legislative process
The legislative process in Russia includes three hearings in the State Duma, then approval by the Council of the Federation and the President. The laws adopted by the State Duma are passed to the Council of the Federation for review. A federal law is considered passed by the Council of the Federation if more than half of its deputies vote for it or if within 14 days it has not been considered. In the event that the State Duma disagrees with the decision of the Federation Council, a federal law is considered adopted if, after a second vote, at least two-thirds of the total number of deputies to the State Duma vote for it. Then, however, laws must be considered by the Council of the Federation. These are laws that deal with the issues of: the federal budget; federal taxes and duties; financial, monetary, credit and customs regulations and money transmission; the ratification and withdrawal from international treaties; the status and protection of the state border; and issues of war and peace.
The adopted federal law is sent to the President. If the President rejects a federal law the State Duma and the Federation Council must again consider the law. If, during the second hearings, the federal law is approved in its earlier draft by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the total number of deputies of the Council of the Federation and the State Duma, it must be signed by the President.
Federation
Russia is a federation with capital in Moscow (population – approximately 13,149,800). It used to consist of 83 subjects before the accession of Crimea, and currently there are 89 subjects following the accession of new territories in 2022 Currently there are 48 Oblasts, 24 Republics, 4 Autonomous Okrugs, 9 Krais, 3 Federal cities, and 1 Autonomous Oblast. These subjects of the federation (regions) are deemed to have equal political rights but they are not equal in area, population or economic development.
They are (administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centres, exceptions have the administrative centre name following in parentheses):
(1) Oblasts:
Amur (capital – Blagoveshchensk), Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Belgorod, Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Chita, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Kursk, Kharkiv Leningrad, Lipetsk, Magadan, Moscow, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Orenburg, Orel, Penza, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan, Sakhalin (capital – Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Samara, Saratov, Smolensk, Sverdlovsk (capital – Yekaterinburg), Tambov, Tomsk, Tula, Tver, Tyumen, Ulyanovsk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Vologda, Voronezh, Yaroslavl, Zaporozia.
(2) Republics:
Adygeya (capital – Maykop), Altay (capital – Gorno-Altaysk), Bashkortostan (capital – Ufa), Buryatiya (capital – Ulan-Ude), Chechnya (capital – Groznyy), Chuvashiya (capital – Cheboksary), Crimea (capital – Simferopol), Dagestan (capital – Makhachkala), Donetsakaya (capital – Donetsk), Ingushetiya (capital – Magas), Kabardino-Balkariya (capital – Nalchik), Kalmykiya (capital – Elista), Karachayevo-Cherkesiya (capital – Cherkessk), Kareliya (capital – Petrozavodsk), Khakasiya (capital – Abakan), Komi (capital – Syktyvkar), Lughanskaya (capital – Lughansk) Mariy-El (capital – Yoshkar-Ola), Mordoviya (capital – Saransk), Sakha [Yakutiya] (capital – Yakutsk), North Ossetia (capital – Vladikavkaz), Tatarstan (capital – Kazan), Tyva (capital – Kyzyl), Udmurtiya (capital – Izhevsk).
(3) Autonomous Okrugs:
Chukotka (capital – Anadyr), Khanty-Mansi, Komi-Permyak (capital – Kudymkar), Nenets (capital – Naryan-Mar), Yamalo-Nenets (capital – Salekhard).
(4) Krais:
Altay (capital – Barnaul), Kamchatskiy (capital – Petropavlovsk – Kamchatskiy), Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Perm, Primorskiy (capital – Vladivostok), Stavropol, Zabaykalsk (capital – Chita).
(5) Federal cities:
Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Sevastopol.
(6) Autonomous Oblast:
Yevrey [Jewish] (capital – Birobidzhan).
Subjects of the federation have their legislatures and governments, who act within the competence determined by the constitution and, in some cases, an agreement between the federation and the region. It is supposed that outside of the jurisdiction of the federation and the joint jurisdiction of the federation and the subjects of the federation, the regions exercise the entire spectrum of state power. In reality most of the Russian laws are in the federal competence and as such have superiority over regional legal acts. Another complication of relations between the federation and the regions is the composition of the tax and budget systems. At the moment the majority of regions receive financial assistance from the federal budget.
Municipalities
There are over 240,000 municipalities in Russia. The structure of a municipal government is determined by the regional legislation under the legal framework established by the federal laws and includes a legislative body at local level.
Sources of Law
Law in Russian society
The Russian legal system in its main features follows those of the European countries. The principles and ideas lying in its foundation are the inviolability of ownership, freedom of contract and the judicial protection of rights along with others that are recognised and shared by modern Western society. Most Russians share Western social values. Moreover, they truly consider themselves to be a part of the Western culture. However, Russia has somewhat different experiences and its own answers to historical challenges.
For those doing business in Russia or with Russians an understanding of the role of law in Russian society is of important practical value. It is likewise important to understand the difference not only between law and repression but between law and other forms of regulation of the human relations like,