Questions of federal structure in the revised version of the Constitution of Russia

Abstract

The subject of this research is the questions of constitutional reform regarding the federal structure of Russia, which require scientific assessment. The object of this research is the legal acts that laid the groundwork for the constitutional reform in Russia: Message of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of January 15, 2020; Law on the Amendment to the Constitution of the Russian Federation; Conclusion of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on Conformity with the Amendment of the Current Constitution of Russia. Detailed analysis is conducted on the content of the constitutional amendments, their correlation with the legal logic and the needs of constitutional federal progress in Russia. The combination of applied methods (general scientific and private scientific, such as formal-legal, comparative-legal, systemic) allows determining the degree and limits of impact of the constitutional amendments upon the federal structure of Russia. The key conclusions consist in ascertainment of the large-scale constitutional federal reform in Russia oriented towards the principles of state unity and territorial integrity, which received prominent and holistic reflection in the revised version of the Constitution; need to complete federal reform at the current legislative level via amending the Federal law “On The General Principles Of Organization of Legislative (Representative) and Executive Authorities of Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation”, as well as the Constitution and statues of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, which should be brought into compliance with the new revision of the Main Law of Russia. The author's special contribution to this research lies in a systemic analysis of recent amendments to the Constitution of Russia, which testify to substantial changes in federal structure of the country. The novelty is defined by the analysis of new constitutional provisions characterizing the content of the constitutional reform in Russia with regards to federal structure, which have not been previously examined in legal science.