Retirement of a highest official of constituent entity of the Russian Federation due to loss of President’s confidence: constitutional issues

Abstract

The subject. The article is devoted to the retirement of a highest official of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation in 2020 due to the loss of confidence of the President of the Russian Federation. Special attention is paid to the grounds for loss of such confidence, legal and social nature of confidence and different aspects of restriction of electoral rights for citizens. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that the retirement of a highest official in constituent entity of the Russian Federation vindicates electoral rights of citizens and decreases a level of confidence to public power of government and law. Moreover, the aim of this article is to prove that practice of the retirement of a highest official in constituent entity of the Russian Federation not always meet legal standards of negative constitutional legal responsibility. The methodology of the study includes general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, description) and logical interpretation of Russian legal acts. Social definitions such as confidence and post-truth were analyzed by methods of philosophy and sociology. The main results and scope of their application. The author describes retirement of a highest official in a subject of the Russian Federation as a measure of constitutional responsibility and constitutional legal coercion in scope of practice in 2020. The author realizes, that President's decrees do not consist legal and appropriate basis for such retirement of a highest official in a subject of the Russian Federation, that is why this measure due to such practice cannot be qualified as negative constitutional legal responsibility. The author suggests ways to improve the mechanisms for applying measures of constitutional coercion in cases of retirement of a highest official in a subject of the Russian Federation due to the loss of confidence of the President of the Russian Federation for prevention of public power abusing, such as: 1) establishing in the federal law formally defined constitutional violations, that threaten the foundations of the constitutional system, morality, health, rights and lawful interests of other persons, ensuring defense and security of the state, the presence/absence of which is determined in the manner of a "preliminary" trial by the courts; 2) introduce measures of constitutional legal prevention or restraint against the highest official in a subject of the Russian Federation; 3) in the decrees of the President of the Russian Federation provide specific grounds for the loss of trust, established by the court. In addition to this, the author suggests to change federal law regulation to give a right for citizens, that live in a subject of the Russian Federation, to sue the President's decree about the retirement of a highest official in a subject of the Russian Federation. This measure will guarantee a real judicial protection for electoral rights for citizens. As a result, the article extends constitutional knowledge about measures of constitutional legal enforcement to highest officials in a subject of the Russian Federation.