Russian Constitution Research Articles

Critical Acceptance of an Unloved Constitution. The Russian State Duma in the 1990s

Abstract The Russian Constitution enacted after the violent end of the destructive “dual rule” between the two-tier double-decker-parliament and the first publicly elected Russian president in 1992 and 1993 is often characterized as hyper-presidentialist and even outright authoritarian. This narrative overlooks that a different interpretation of the constitution seemed possible during the first years of post-Soviet parliamentary development in the Russian Federation. While a large majority of State Duma deputies heavily criticized the new constitutional order, mainly because of the obvious disbalance between the powers of the executive and the legislative branches of government, it accepted the document as a binding working basis and immediately engaged in a serious, mostly constructive debate about necessary amendments. During the first two legislative periods between 1994 and 1999, members of all parliamentary groups not only started to refer to the initially unloved constitution as “theirs”. Some of them even perceived themselves as guardians of this basic institutional order because it did offer the weak legislative branch of government certain room for action and protection against arbitrary encroachment by the executive branch. Whereas the brief window of opportunity for consensual constitutional amendments in 1998 and 1999 closed without tangible results when Vladimir Putin came to power, an alternative trajectory of the Russian political regime was for some time conceivable.

Outlining the contours of Russia’s legal mobilization

In 2020, based on the results of the all-Russian vote, the current Constitution of the Russian Federation was changed, it was supplemented by a number of new important norms relating to a variety of areas of constitutional and legal regulation. However, today a number of authors, experts, and representatives of government bodies raise the question of the need to continue to correct the Basic Law of Russia. Among such authors is N. M. Dobrynin, who in his article “The Russian constitutionalism in the framework of new geopolitical environment: milestones and vectors”, published in the journal “State and Law” of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2023. No. 9), outlines ways of possible changes to the Russian Constitution, including the establishment of guarantees of social justice and strengthening the spiritual and moral foundations of the country’s socio-political structure.

КОНСТИТУЦИОННАЯ КУЛЬТУРА РОССИЯН НА ЭТАПЕ ПЕРЕХОДА ОТ ЛИБЕРАЛИЗАЦИИ КОНСТИТУЦИОННО-ПРАВОВОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА К ЗАЩИТЕ ТРАДИЦИОННЫХ ЦЕННОСТЕЙ

The purpose of the study is to analyze the state of modern constitutional culture in the era of changing political and ideological guidelines, the transition from a liberal-universal model of constitutional development to a nationally oriented one.The objectives of the study are the following: to determine the main characteristics of the state of constitutional culture in the era of excessive enthusiasm for universal liberal values at the end of the last century; analyze the main trends in the processes of constitutional and legal reform in the light of the ideas of protecting constitutional identity, ensuring constitutional sovereignty and protecting traditional values; consider the impact of the constitutional reform of 2020 on the qualitative change in the constitutional culture of Russians, its significance for determining the future paths of constitutional and legal development of Russia, and identify the positive and most controversial aspects of the reform. The work used general scientific, special scientific and special research methods. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that today a steady trend has formed towards reforming the constitutional and legal space - the ideas of liberal universalization are opposed to the ideas of constitutional identity and the protection of traditional values. At one time, the new Russian Constitution was designed to take into account all the shortcomings of decades of socialist construction and act not as a document of a political-declaratory nature, but as a basis for the creation of a state and society of a fundamentally new type. According to the author, excessive passion for borrowed values of a universal nature has had the most negative impact on the state of the constitutional culture of Russians. However, even today it is obvious that a well-developed theoretical structure that would relatively accurately and legally definitely outline the main directions of further constitutional development, in line with the development of the idea of protecting traditional values, does not exist today, which is especially noticeable in the example of documents of a programmatic and political nature . The constitutional reform of 2020, according to the author, reflected new trends and approaches to the idea of ensuring constitutional identity and symbolized significant changes in constitutional culture, including at the level of ordinary consciousness of ordinary Russians who were directly involved in the process of constitutional reform. However, the author concludes that the constitutional reform is incomplete, which generally characterizes the state of domestic constitutional culture.

Coordination of the interests of the parties to labor relations and the state at the labor market

In modern conditions, the role of the state is significantly increasing — both in the sphere of the national economy as a whole and in the sphere of labor. This is due to a number of circumstances, including, first of all, factors of a transient, extraordinary nature. However, much more important is the long-term factor associated with the radical transformation of the economy, with its transition to the type that is defined as the “supply economy”. The supply economy assumes not just the reaction of the economy to the demand developing in different sectors of social life, but above all the impact on the formation of this demand. It is obvious that this task cannot be solved by internal, purely market means — an active social policy is required, which is designed to be developed and implemented by the state, which, according to the force of the Russian Constitution, is a social state. The directions of this policy are extremely diverse, but to a very significant extent it concerns the sphere of the labor market and labor relations. The traditional task of the state in this area is to coordinate the socially significant interests of social groups of workers and employers as participants in the labor market. In turn, the solution of this problem is connected with the need to carry out a number of organizational and legal measures aimed at streamlining the legal status of labor market participants and protecting their rights and legitimate interests. The logical consequence of solving this global task is the transformation of the system of domestic law, which should find its expression in the allocation and formation of an array of legal norms on employment — initially as a special branch of legislation within which the social policy of the state will be implemented, and in the future — an independent branch of law.

О роли конституционных норм в формировании и развитии уголовно-исполнительного права

The article considers various aspects of the influence of the norms of the Russian Constitution on the formation and development of penal enforcement law. The author does not support the position that the Constitution is a direct source of law of this branch. At the same time, there are a number of manifestations of the determining role of the Constitution for penal legislation, in addition to the traditionally mentioned in the literature influence of Chapter 2 of the Constitution on the legal status of convicts. This refers to the very name of the criminal-executive law, to the definition of the range of sources of legislation, to the establishment of its correlation with universally recognised international acts. The author considers the prohibition of ‘violence’ contained in the Constitution and the Criminal Executive Code, which equates all violence with torture, as unrealistic and very controversial from the standpoint of international standards. A systemic interpretation of the norms of the Constitution and universally recognised international acts does not allow to regard the compulsory labour contained in the Code for the majority of prisoners sentenced to imprisonment as a violation of the constitutional prohibition of forced labour. This should be reflected in the norms of the General Part of the Penal Enforcement Code of the Russian Federation. Taking into account the amendments to the Constitution of Russia adopted in 2020, it is advisable to adapt to modern conditions the previously successful experience of involving representatives of civil society in the implementation of penal enforcement policy. The content of Article 9 of the Code on the concept of correction of convicted persons should also be clarified in the direction of greater compliance of its content with the traditional values of Russian society. In our opinion, it makes sense to specify it: "Correction of convicts is the formation of their readiness and ability to consciously comply with the requirements of the criminal law in the spirit of respect for man, society, the state and the basic traditional moral values of Russian society". The latter are formulated in Article 5 of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 9 November 2022. No. 809 "On Approval of the Principles of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values": life, dignity, human rights and freedoms, patriotism, citizenship, service to the Fatherland and responsibility for its fate, high moral ideals, strong family, creative labour, priority of spiritual over material, humanism, mercy, justice, collectivism, mutual assistance and mutual respect, historical memory and continuity of generations, unity of the peoples of Russia.

Российский конституционализм 30 лет спустя

Introduction. The actualization of the processes of improving constitutional prescriptions in modern Russia necessitates the search for the theoretical foundations of constitutional reforms. The reason for writing the article was the anniversary date – the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Any anniversary is always an occasion to reflect, analyze, return to the times when everything began. As the purpose of the analysis of the evolution of Russian constitutionalism, it is possible to define a rethinking of approaches to models, methods and tools for changing the legal reality. Materials and Methods. The transformation of the constitutional model of the state as a subject of scientific research in this work is based on the analysis of the transformations of the Constitution over three decades, the study of domestic experience in the legal regulation of public relations, the interpretation of constitutional provisions and institutions. Analysis. The Constitution of the Russian Federation defines the structure and principles of the organization of public power, the rights and obligations of citizens and much more. However, despite its importance, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as the basic laws of other countries, does not always correspond to the realities of life and needs constant updating and improvement. Results. The article is devoted to the study of constitutional transformations in the aspect of retrospective and comparative legal analysis of some constitutional and legal institutions – federalism, public power, special attention is paid to the evolution of constitutional guarantees of the realization of human rights and freedoms.

ИДЕЯ ГРАЖДАНСТВЕННОСТИ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ РОССИЙСКОМ КОНСТИТУЦИОНАЛИЗМЕ: ПРОБЛЕМЫ ПРАВОВОЙ ИНСТИТУЦИОНАЛИЗАЦИИ

Introduction. Russian constitutionalism covers not only its ideological and philosophical asp ects, but also its normative basis. At the same time, the embodiment in the text of the Constitution of the Russian Federation of those constitutional ideas that give new impetus to the strengthening and sustainable development of Russian society is of particular importance. One of them is the idea of citizenship, which has found expression in the latest changes to our Basic Law. Currently, the issue of developing constitutional provisions covering the relevant area remains relevant. Its solution involves identifying approaches to the institutionalization of norms of constitutional law, prospects for determining the degree of their unity and the possibility of improvement. The variety of political, ideological, psychological, social and other aspects of citizenship forms a complex area for research, involving the analysis of constitutionalism, legal institutionalization and theoretical problems of the development of citizenship from the perspective of constitutional legal science, consideration of the possibilities of developing the idea of citizenship in constitutional norms affecting this specific area public relations. Results. Approaches to determining the place and features of the expression of the idea of citizenship in modern Russian constitutionalism are established, the relationship between the concepts of “citizenship” and “citizenship”, the methodological significance of the study of trust for the legal institutionalization of the area under consideration are characterized, conclusions are formulated about the state-social aspects of the constitutional idea of citizenship and its normative expression in Currently, proposals are being made covering the reflection of the idea of citizenship in constitutional norms that have a value-oriented and other impact on the relations that develop in the sphere of interaction between society and the state. Conclusions. The importance of the constitutional idea of citizenship for the sustainable development of Russian state-organized society involves addressing issues related to determining the features of its expression in the elemental composition of domestic constitutionalism, the specifics of normative consolidation, including in the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The fullness of citizenship as a legal form of connection between a person and the state with content that covers economic, political, ideological, as well as other aspects, suggests that the presence of such a quality as citizenship in an individual is one of the factors determining the effectiveness of interaction between a citizen and the state in all spheres of existence and development of Russia. Considering the importance of citizenship and the brevity of its mention in the text of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, it seems that the constitutional potential for the development of the legal foundations of the idea of citizenship is far from being fully realized. Therefore, when addressing issues of legal institutionalization in this area, including taking into account the value content of the idea of citizenship, it seems preferable to reflect it in the systematized provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which have a higher level of generalization and unity, aimed at determining the fundamental principles of interaction between society and the state, including among those that determine the participation of society in solving government problems

Crimea Responsibility to Protect and Self-Determination under Article 2 of the UN Charter

The annexation of the Crimean Peninsula has sparked the debate on state sovereignty in the context of international law. This research aims to establish the legal consequences of Russia’s annexation and the global communities' measures. The study also discusses Kosovo's independence and whether it can be used to solve the crisis in Crimea. International law has outlined some of the rules that are meant to govern the relationship between states. Russia is a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances alongside other countries such as the United States, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. The memorandum had all the signatories strive to uphold the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea. The Russian constitution stipulates that any acquisition of new federal subjects must be made with the consent of the affected state. The annexation of the Crimean Peninsula appears clearly to contravene these provisions.

Эволюция российской Конституции и государство-цивилизация как концептуальная парадигма нового Основного Закона России

Introduction. The relevance of the study. One of the key worldviews of the resurgent state ideology of modern Russia is the idea of a state-civilization, which acted as the doctrinal basis of the recently adopted Concept of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation. In this regard, there is a need to describe the legal characteristics of the state-civilization and their adequate reflection in the constitutional legislation, which puts on the agenda the issue of developing and adopting a new Constitution of the Russian Federation that meets its civilizational characteristics and development goals. The purpose is to analyze the contradictions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation reformed in 2020, substantiate the idea of a state-civilization as the conceptual basis of the new Basic Law of the country, and argue for the need to start work on it in the near future. The methodological framework for the research is the civilizational approach in combination with the general scientific and special methods of cognition: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, technical, comparative law, and historical-legal. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that, based on a civilizational approach, it outlines the tasks facing domestic legal science in connection with the official recognition of Russia as a civilizational state and identifies some conceptual ideas that, in the author’s opinion, could form the basis of the new Russian Constitution. Results and conclusions. The official recognition of Russia as a civilizational state is in fact an announcement of a course towards building an empire. Therefore, the main direction of constitutional reform at this historical stage is the legalization of the Russian government in this capacity. The main principles of the new Constitution of Russia, which allows for the consolidation of Russian society in its confrontation with the collective West, are the ideas of social justice and state sovereignty. It is in them that the request of Russian society to the state is revealed as fully as possible. All other political and legal principles and norms can be important, accepted by the public consciousness, and enshrined in the Constitution only if they correspond to these fundamental values.

Некоторые размышления по поводу 20-летия Федерального закона «Об общих принципах организации местного самоуправления в Российской Федерации»

Introduction. Legal regulation in the field of local self-government has been carried out by the key Federal Law “On the General Principles of the Organization of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation" for twenty years. It is periodically criticized due to numerous adjustments, and, after the 2020 amendments to the Russian Constitution, its “resignation” was already predicted. However, the bill prepared to replace it did not stand up to criticism and died out in the State Duma. Against this background, there is a reason to comprehend and evaluate the current law from the standpoint of the relevance of extending its “legal life”. Theoretical analysis. It has been revealed that, from its inception, local self-government has undergone numerous changes dictated by the needs of the state. They are based on the balance of interests of central and local authorities. Historical and legal research has shown the trend during the period of zemstvo reforms in monarchical Russia. After a long Soviet period of oblivion, at the end of the last century there was a revival of local government on the democratic basis. The Basic Law of the State of 1993 reflected the independence of local self-government, as well as not entirely justified rule on the separation of its bodies from state ones, which influenced further legislative regulation that was subject to frequent changes. Results. The clearly manifested desire of the legislator to bring local self-government closer to the general system of government for the coordinated interaction of all levels of government became a logical step towards the constitutional consolidation of the institution of public power. The authors’ conclusion was that under these conditions, the resource of the current Federal Law “On the General Principles of the Organization of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation” is not exhausted.

The Constitution of Russia and Ideology

The paper examines an ideological element of constitutional regulation, based on the understanding of ideology as part of a collective worldview aimed at expressing long-term ideals and interests of people related to the structure of society, its political and state organization. At the same time, the constitutional provisions on ideological and political diversity serve as the basis for the identification of a national ideology in the interaction of group (party) programs, the generalized expression of which constitutes the national idea. The author subjects to detailed analysis the provision of Part 2 of Article 13 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation stating that no ideology can be established as state or mandatory one. This prohibition cannot apply to constitutionally fixed ideologems as elements of a national ideology and their clarifying regulation. This prohibition is a means of securing ideological diversity. Constitutional ideologemes, which include, for example, the provisions of the Preamble, Articles 671 and 751, are being developed in other norms of the Constitution and current legislation. But the main direction of concretization of such ideologies is their value-doctrinal development in official strategies, doctrines, concepts. At this level, a systematic study of the civilizational vector of the country’s development is important. The idea of arranging the country, all aspects of its life can serve as a significant internal guideline.

From Development of the Foundations of Sovereign Democracy Towards the Paradigm of a Unified System of Public Power: Milestones of Scientific Creativity of Valerian A. Lebedev (to the Anniversary of the Scholar)

The review article is dedicated to one of the landmark events for the entire legal world and the community of constitutional law scholars: the anniversary of Doctor of Law, Professor Valerian A. Lebedev, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation. Prof. Valerian A. Lebedev started his work during a difficult period of reforms initiated for the development of Russian statehood, a change in the paradigm of constitutional law development and a radical restructuring of the basic principles of ensuring and protecting fundamental rights and freedoms of the man and citizen. The paper highlights the main milestones of Prof. Valerian A. Lebedev’s scientific work related to the study of the problems of genuine democracy and sovereignty of the people, the priority of development in compliance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation and substantiation of the concept of sovereign democracy, functioning on the constitutional mechanism for the protection of individual rights, ensuring the principle of political pluralism, building a unified system of public power and a unified legislative system of the country, implementation of the constitutional reform. The paper highlights critically important role of Prof. Valerian A. Lebedev and his scientific creativity for the transitional and modern path of development of the national statehood, comprehensive, acute, problematic nature of his works, the unique scientific foresight of the scholar, who not only foresaw the constitutional reform, but also revealed its key concepts-novels, pitfalls and prospects for improving specific constitutional law institutions. The possibility of studying modern and past research works by Prof. A. Lebedev is presented as a special value for the modern science of constitutional law, since their subject of research covers the key concepts and categories of the theory of Russian constitutionalism, correct understanding of which depends on the possibility of effective implementation of the constitutional principles of the existence of the state and society.

The Constitutional Model of Interaction in the Constitutional Acts of Modern Russia

The paper examines the term «interaction» updated in the process of the 2020 Constitutional Reform. The author analyzes the constitutional model of the interaction implementation in the Constitution of Russia, federal legislation and constitutional (statutory) legislation of the constituent entities of the Federation. Based on the comparative legal analysis, the paper explains the features of interaction in the unified system of public authorities at various levels, the features of goal-setting and types and forms of interaction. The author concludes that different goal-setting of interaction in the legislation of constituent entities, on the one hand, allows taking into account the characteristic features, on the other hand, it implies differences in the forms and procedures of its implementation and subjects of interaction. The author proposes the system-forming elements of a unified system of public authorities. It is revealed that in the acts of the constituent entities under consideration, it is mainly about interaction in the system of state power, whereas the constitutional formulations at the federal level also concern local self-government bodies. According to the author, this narrowing of the subjects of interaction carries obvious risks of improper enforcement of federal legislation. The author also concludes that interaction is more widely regulated at the level of the constituent entities of the federation, determines the goals and subjects of the process, defines the features of interaction and promising aspects for incorporation into the legislation of the constituent entities.

Development of Public Power in Judicial Acts and Legal Positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation: To the 30th Anniversary of the Constitution of the Russian Federation

The paper analyzes the main legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation since the 1990s until 2023 on the organization and functioning of public authority in Russia in the context of the theory of the «living» Constitution of Russia. To expand on the topic the author dwells upon the legal positions of the constitutional control body as an explanation of the norms of the Russian Constitution, which influences the law-making process and law enforcement practice. Based on the analysis of judicial acts, the main constitutional characteristics of public power are determined: inclusion of municipal government in its composition (the presence of organizational isolation of local government bodies with their functional unity with state power); continuous functioning and historical succession of public power; exercise of public power at the level of the Federation, constituent entities of the Federation, municipalities with the inadmissibility of violating each other’s competence by these levels. It is noted that the main task of state building may be to bring the activities of public authorities closer to the forms of democracy, as well as the development of their direct connections through public discussions between public authorities and the people, society, and citizens.

The Constitutional Nature of Municipal Power

The paper examines the significance of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in the formation and development of the political and legal essence of local self-government and its driving force as to strengthen municipal power as a type of public power that ensures the implementation of certain laws and municipal regulations on the territory municipalities. The author believes that it is only after the adoption of the Russian Constitution in 1993 that local self-government has acquired the constitutional potential for its formation as an authoritative channel for expressing the will of the people, both directly and through local government bodies. The paper shows the role of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the implementation of the constitutional idea of the power essence of local self-government and its consolidation in the current legislation. At the same time, according to the author, there are no sufficient grounds to conclude that the idea of the authoritative essence of local self-government is fully implemented in legislation. Believing it necessary to further strengthen the municipal government, the author makes proposals, the implementation of which will contribute to solving this pressing problem.

Through Dialogue with the Past to Finding the Future: Some Aspects of Gavriil V. Derzhavin’s Legacy for the Development of Modern Russian Jurisprudence

The paper provides an expanded version of the theses of the author’s report delivered at the scientific and educational conference «Your duty is to preserve the laws … " dedicated to the 280th anniversary of Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin held at the Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MSAL) on July 5, 2023. The paper deals with the issues of understanding of law as the initial category of jurisprudence in Derzhavin’s ideological and creative semantic space and understanding of the Constitution, bearing in mind G. R. Derzhavin participation in the formation of the project-doctrinal origins of Russian constitutionalism. The author focuses on ideological and spiritual legacy of G. R. Derzhavin directly reflected in his state-political and literary-creative biography. The author, relying on the concept of constitutional dialogue with the past put forward by Derzhavin, reveals a comprehensive creative potential of Derzhavin’s philosophy of state-legal life for the formation of value-semantic, pedagogical and institutional foundations of a nationally oriented constitutional model of the development of sovereign Russian statehood in modern conditions.

Motherland as a Form of Collective Survival and a Relevant Object of Ensuring the National Security

Introduction. In the modern humanitarian science, there is no unanimity in understanding the essence of national security and the main object it is to ensure due to detachment of the modern jurisprudence from the genuine nature and innate capabilities of a human being. The modern geopolitical confrontation clearly shows the constraints of the existing approaches, which consider the national security as a simple aggregate of a person’s, society’s and the state’s security at the present time, whereas the contemporary hybrid wars are first of all aimed at destroying the enemy’s past and programming its future. Therefore, the task to elucidate the relevant subject matter of the national security relations has become an urgent issue for further successful survival of the multinational people of Russia and preservation of the checks and balances principle existing in the world. The aim of the study is to determine the relevant subject and object of ensuring the national security of the Russian Federation.Materials and Methods. The result of the analysis of more than 1000 files containing scientific, methodological, regulatory and educational materials regarding the national security as a legal category has become the material for the present research. The multifacetedness of the studied legal phenomena has induced the application of the interdisciplinary approach and reference to the data obtained by the representatives of anthropological, theological, philosophical and historical legal sciences. The diagrams and categories of the theories of the legal order of society, institutional changes, the geopolitical and security theories have been used as the specific scientific methods. The method of dialectical scientific knowledge, the social systems, management and gaming theories methods were widely used enabling considering the behavior of the security ensuring process participants from the pragmatic perspective.Results. Today’s Russia, as a moment of being of the multinational people of the Russian Federation in the current spatial-temporal reality, is the sovereign unity of the Russian person, society and state formed for collective survival, provision of protection and safety through availability of the necessary forces and facilities, single national order and worldview, along with the single will embodied in the presidential power. “The national security of the Russian Federation” is the result of assessment and maintenance of such beingness of the multinational people of the Russian Federation by means of the citizens’, society’s and state’s forces and facilities, that satisfies in the sovereign and independent way its vital needs for self-preservation, self-renewal and self-reproduction in the past, present and future. By introducing a relevant object of ensuring the national security and by changing the nature of relationships between the subjects, the proposed definition creates the doctrinal basis for transition to a collective model of survival in the present geopolitical situation.Discussion and Conclusions. The essence of the notion “national” in the context of the “National Security Strategy” is manifested as a single state form, comprising the existence and beingness of the Russian state, society and personality in the frame of their genesis and evolvement in the past, present and future in the geopolitical philosophical dimension. This corresponds to the notion "civilization" as a social form of the motion of matter, providing its stability and ability to self-development through self-regulation and exchange with the environment. The multinational people of the Russian Federation as a civilization or a “thousand-year-old state” possesses the real sovereignty, its own national order and worldview; it had never lost its statehood, was able to survive all the fatal threats to its secure existence. In our opinion, in the current spatial-temporal reality, an efficient subject of security, which is at the same time the main object of ensuring security and the only form of collective survival for a person, is the multinational people of the Russian Federation as a nation united by the state form and governed by it. Motherland as a pathetic designation of the Russian civilization, legislatively defined by the Russian Constitution as “the multinational people of the Russian Federation”, is a relevant form of collective survival for the Russian person, personality, society and the state.

Нейтральность субъектов общественного контроля в Российской Федерации как его принцип: конституционно-правовой анализ

The present article is focused on the constitutional – legal analysis of the neutrality of the public con-trol subjects in the Russian Federation as its principle. The work examines the main points of view of domestic and foreign science representatives concerning the content of the concept of neutrality of the subjects of public control. The article analyzes the limits of realization of this principle. The au-thors formalize and examine the main problems that hinder its implementation: the lack of consolida-tion of this institution of civil society in the Russian Constitution; undemocratic nature of the for-mation of the subjects of public control; lack of prohibition in the legislation on political parties to intervene in the organization and activities of the subjects of public control; undeveloped norms of criminal and administrative and legal responsibility for countering legitimate activities of the latter. Moreover, the article develops a system of measures to resolve the above-mentioned problems, in-cluding proposals for amendments and additions to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the current legislation.

The Federal Tax Service and its territorial divisions as objects of public control in Russia

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Federal Tax Service and its territorial divisions as objects of public control in the Russian Federation. The paper substantiates the role and place of the institution of public control in the system of legal guarantees for the implementation and protection of the constitutional principles of democracy and the participation of Russian citizens in the management of state affairs. The Federal Tax Service and its territorial divisions occupy a special place in the system of objects of public control in the Russian Federation. However, the organization and implementation of public control measures in relation to the above-mentioned objects are associated with numerous problems caused by: the lack of consolidation of this institution of civil society in the Constitution of Russia, as well as legislation regulating the activities of tax authorities; weak powers of subjects of public control, insufficient use of modern information and communication technologies; lack of development of special forms, methods and types of public control measures in relation to the above-mentioned objects; weak use of Soviet and foreign experience of civil society control over the government apparatus. A number of scientific research methods are used in the work, in particular: comparative legal; historical legal; statistical; sociological; formal logical; method of analyzing specific practical situations. The authors have developed and substantiated a system of measures to resolve problems related to the organization and implementation of public control in relation to the Federal Tax Service of Russia and its territorial divisions by: incorporating the institute of public control into the Basic Law of the country, as well as legislation regulating the organization and activities of tax authorities; developing specific features of the implementation of this institution of civil society in relation to to the activities, acts and decisions of tax authorities in the scientific literature and subordinate normative legal acts on public control using positive Soviet and foreign experience in the functioning of civil society institutions; development and implementation of comprehensive Federal programs for the development of organizational, methodological and technological base of subjects of public control with simultaneous expansion of their powers.

The Problems of Assessing Effectiveness of Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation

The article is devoted to the analysis of federal legislation in the field of strategic planning. During the analysis of legal regulation in this area, it was found that public authorities implement strategic planning documents within the framework of goal setting, forecasting, planning and programming, but this part of management activities is not actually covered by the current evaluation mechanism. Attention is drawn to the existence of a number of terminological contradictions contained in federal legislation that negatively affect the state of legal regulation in this area. Planning is defined by the federal legislator as an activity for the development and implementation of activities, activity plans aimed at achieving the goals and priorities contained in strategic planning documents developed within the framework of goal setting. That is, according to the meaning of the law, planning as such does not cover goal-setting, but at the same time includes the development and implementation of documents at the same time, which initially introduces a contradiction in the understanding of these terms. The study found that the current strategic planning system today does not take into account a number of amendments made to the Russian Constitution in 2020. In particular, we are talking about federal territories. It is established that federal legislation does not regulate the specifics of strategic planning in other territories where a special preferential regime is in effect. The law does not define the procedure for monitoring the implementation of strategic planning documents, which reduces the level of their legal effectiveness. In order to improve management activities, it is proposed to create a unified information and analytical portal for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation of strategic planning documents. Proposals and recommendations are made aimed at eliminating the existing contradictions and identified shortcomings of legal regulation in the field of strategic planning.