Constitution of Russia

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Constitution of the Russian Federation
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

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The Constitution of the Russian Federation (Russian: Конституция Российской Федерации, romanized: Konstitucija Rossijskoj Federacii) was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993 and enacted on 25 December 1993. The latest significant reform occurred in 2020, marked by extensive amendments that altered various sections, including presidential terms, social policies, and the role of Russian law over international norms. (See 2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia).

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 1993 Constitution is one of the longest-standing constitutions in Russian history, second only to the Soviet Union’s 1936 Constitution, which was in effect until 1977.

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.^[1] The USAID-funded lawyers also contributed to the development of the draft.^[2]

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.