President of Russia
The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation, is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. It is the highest office in Russia.
The modern incarnation of the office emerged from the president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. In 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the RSFSR, becoming the first non-Communist Party member to be elected into a major Soviet political role. He played a crucial role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union which saw the transformation of the RSFSR into the Russian Federation. Following a series of scandals and doubts about his leadership, violence erupted across Moscow in the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. As a result, a new constitution was implemented and the 1993 Russian Constitution remains in force today. The constitution establishes Russia as a semi-presidential system which separates the president of Russia from the government of Russia which exercises executive power.
In all cases where the president of the Russian Federation is unable to fulfill their duties, those duties shall be temporarily delegated to the prime minister of Russia, who becomes acting president of Russia.
The powers of the presidency include: execution of federal law, appointing federal ministers, and members of the judiciary, and negotiating treaties with foreign powers. The president also has the power to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn the Federal Assembly under extraordinary circumstances. The president also appoints the prime minister, who directs domestic policy of the Russian Federation alongside the president.
The president is elected directly through a popular vote to a six-year term. Previously, the Constitution established a term limit for the presidency restricting the officeholder to serve no more than two consecutive terms. However, this limitation has since been overhauled in large part due to the constitutional amendments that were ratified in 2020. One of the amendments passed reset the terms of both Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, allowing either to serve as president for a full two terms regardless of their previous terms. In all, three individuals have served four presidencies spanning six full terms. In May 2012, Vladimir Putin became the fourth president; he was re-elected in March 2018 and in March 2024 for two consecutive six-year terms.
History
After the fall of monarchy in 1917, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, elected later that year, planned on establishing a democratic presidential or semi-presidential federal republic, proclaiming the Russian Democratic Federal Republic in January 1918. The president of the RDFR would have been the head of state, elected for a one-year term by a majority vote in parliament involving the deputies of both chambers. Due to the dissolution of the assembly by the Bolsheviks and establishment of their one-party dictatorship, no person was ever elected to this office.Boris Yeltsin came to power with a wave of high expectations not long before the Soviet Union's collapse. In May 1990, he was elected as chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic – the highest state office – and thus became the head of state. As a result of the creation of the post of President of the Soviet Union, the Union republics also began to introduce the post of President. To do this, a referendum was held in the Russian SFSR, in which 71% of voters voted for the creation of the post of President, elected in direct elections. On 12 June 1991 Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian SFSR with 57% of the vote, becoming the first popularly elected president. However, Yeltsin never recovered his popularity after a series of economic and political crises in Russia in the 1990s. The Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, and enormous political and social problems. By the time he left office, Yeltsin had an approval rating of two percent by some estimates.
Throughout his presidential terms and into his second term as the prime minister, Vladimir Putin has enjoyed high approval ratings amongst the Russian public. During his eight years in office, the Russian economy bounced back from crisis, seeing the country's GDP increase sixfold, poverty cut more than half and average monthly salaries increase from $80 to $640, or by 150% in real rates. At the same time, his conduct in office has been questioned by domestic dissenters, as well as foreign governments and human rights organizations, for his handling of internal conflicts in Chechnya and Dagestan, his record on internal human rights and freedoms, his relations with former Soviet republics, and his relations with the so-called oligarchs: Russian businessmen with a high degree of power and influence within both the Russian government and economy. This was seen by the Kremlin as a series of anti-Russian propaganda attacks orchestrated by western opponents and exiled oligarchs.
Medvedev was appointed as first deputy prime minister on 14 November 2005. Formerly Vladimir Putin's chief of staff, he was also the chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, a post he had held, for the second time, since 2000. On 10 December 2007, he was informally endorsed as a candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections by the most prominent Russian political party, United Russia, and officially endorsed on 17 December 2007. Medvedev's candidacy was supported by outgoing president Vladimir Putin and pro-presidential parties. As technocrat and political appointee, Medvedev – Putin's former chief of staff and one-time rival to Sergey Ivanov – had never held elective office before 2009. Medvedev chose Putin as his prime minister; in 2012, Putin ran for the presidency, won, and appointed Medvedev as prime minister.
Selection process
Eligibility
A presidential candidate must be a citizen of the Russian Federation who is at least 35 years old, has permanently resided in Russia for at least 25 years and does not have and has never previously had foreign citizenship or a foreign residence permit. Following constitutional amendments in 2020, the requirement of permanent residence in Russia increased from 10 years to 25 years and a new requirement preventing a presidential candidate from ever having foreign citizenship or a foreign residence permit was introduced.The Russian constitution limits the number of terms a president can serve to two terms. Previously, the constitution only limited the president to two consecutive terms, allowing a former president to seek re-election after sitting out one complete term. However, following constitutional changes in 2020, this was changed to two terms overall, allowing the incumbent president and former presidents to serve two more terms.
Election
The election of the president is mainly regulated by the Presidential Election Law and the Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights. The Federation Council calls the presidential elections. If it does not call a presidential election that is due, the Central Election Commission will call the presidential election. The election day is the second Sunday of the month and the presidential electoral constituency is the territory of the Russian Federation as a whole.Each faction in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament has the right to nominate a candidate for the presidential elections. The minimum number of signatures for a presidential candidate fielded by a political party with no parliamentary representation is 100,000, down from 2 million before amendments to the law.
Terms were extended from four to six years in 2008, during Dmitry Medvedev's administration. The president is elected in a two-round system every six years, with a two consecutive term limitation. If no candidate wins by an absolute majority in the first round, a second election round is held between two candidates with the most votes. The last presidential election was in 2024, and the next is in 2030.
Inauguration
The inauguration of the president of Russia is conducted six years after the previous inauguration. If the president is chosen in an early election, they are scheduled to take the oath thirty days after the announcement of the results.Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath: