Constitution of Russia
The Constitution of the Russian Federation (Russian: Конститу́ция Росси́йской Федера́ции) was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993. 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 current Constitution is the second most long-lived in the history of Russia, behind the Constitution of 1936.
| Constitution of the Russian Federation | |
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A special copy of the text of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, on which the President of the Russian Federation takes the oath | |
| Overview | |
| Original title | Конституция Российской Федерации |
| Jurisdiction | Russian Federation |
| Ratified | 12 December 1993 |
| Date effective | 25 December 1993 |
| System | Federal semi-presidential republic |
| Government structure | |
| Branches | Three |
| Head of state | President |
| Chambers | Bicameral (Federal Assembly: Federation Council, State Duma) |
| Executive | Prime Minister-led Government |
| Judiciary | Judiciary (Constitutional Court, Supreme Court) |
| Federalism | Federation |
| Electoral college | No |
| Entrenchments | 9 |
| History | |
| First legislature | 12 December 1993 |
| First executive | 9 August 1996 |
| Amendments | 4 (plus 11 alternations on Federal subjects) |
| Last amended | 4 July 2020 |
| Location | Kremlin, Moscow |
| Commissioned by | Constitutional Assembly |
| Signatories | Constitutional referendum by the citizens of Russia |
| Supersedes | Constitution of the RSFSR |
| Full text | |
| Constitution of Russia at Wikisource | |
Politics of Russia |
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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.