In modern Russia, there are enough courts involved in the consideration of criminal, civil and arbitration cases, the passing of sentences and decisions, the satisfaction of claims or refusals in them. But there is another court that studies and evaluates cases related exclusively to the observance of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, monitoring the compliance of state regulations with it. It is called Constitutional.
At the walls of the White House
Born in October 1991, the Russian Constitutional Court (Constitutional Court) immediately became involved in the struggle that unfolded between President Boris Yeltsin and his former associates, and then opponents, Alexander Rutskoy and Ruslan Khasbulatov. Even if the court did not take part in the attacks on the White House in Moscow or in its defense, its head Valery Zorkin was one of those who were present at the negotiations on overcoming the constitutional crisis. Zorkin also prepared the text of the agreement between Yeltsin and his opponents, which may have saved many lives.
It was the Constitutional Court that recommended to postpone the introduction of amendments, which significantly limited the powers of the President of the country, until the national referendum in April 93rd. And the participants in the conflict, which threatened Russia with a new Civil War, then agreed with him. True, the world did not last long. By the way, Boris Yeltsin assessed the anti-presidential court decisions on the eve of the tragic events in Moscow in October 1993, which was naturally negative. And having dissolved the court, he soon created another. Under the new law, judges were deprived of the right to consider cases on their own initiative and assess the constitutionality of political and legislative actions of the country's top officials and parties.
Legal powers
The list of cases on which 19 Russian judges can make decisions is limited by Article 125 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Legal proceedings are carried out by them exclusively at the motivated requests of the President and the government, the Federation Council and the State Duma, as well as the Supreme and Supreme Arbitration Court of Russia, legislative and executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, who wished to check for compliance with the Constitution:
- federal laws;
- other normative acts adopted by the president, government and deputies of the Federation Council and the State Duma;
- Constitutions and other regulatory documents of the republics and regions that are part of the Russian Federation, relating to issues of state power;
- agreements between federal authorities and constituent entities of the Russian Federation;
- international treaties of the country that have not entered into legal force.
In addition, the court can consider disputes about competence between state authorities, between state bodies of the subjects of the federation, between the latter and similar federal ones. The powers of the Constitutional Court also include the interpretation of the Constitution and the verification of the constitutionality of the law, the application of which in court caused a substantiated complaint from a citizen. For example, in June 2014, the Constitutional Court examined the constitutionality of part 11 of article 3 of the law “On monetary allowances for military personnel and the provision of separate payments to them” and recognized that some of its provisions violate the constitutional rights of citizens. Then he recommended to the legislator to change the mechanism of material compensation for harm to family members of a deceased soldier who are not his parents or relatives, but who have equal rights with them.
"Loud" cases
The Constitutional Court is probably the quietest court in the country. There are no prosecutors and lawyers, defendants and escorts, and although decisions are not subject to appeal or revision, they are not clothed in a harsh sentence. Nevertheless, a number of cases that were considered in the Constitutional Court may well be called "high-profile". Thus, in 1993, the Constitutional Court concluded that the activities of Boris Yeltsin as president were contrary to the Constitution. On the basis of this very decision, the Supreme Soviet voted to terminate Yeltsin's powers, their transfer to the vice-president and the convocation of the Extraordinary Congress. And soon, tanks opened fire on the White House, where Rutskoy, Khasbulatov, deputies and their supporters opposed to the president had barricaded themselves …
In 1995, the new composition of the Constitutional Court confirmed the legality of most of the normative acts of Boris Yeltsin, who thus tried to end the war in Chechnya and restore the effect of the country's Constitution there. And in 2014, the Constitutional Court refused to consider the complaint of Dmitry Tretyakov, a resident of Togliatti, that the Supreme Court did not accept his statement of claim on the unconstitutionality of the dissolution of the USSR by the decision of the Council of Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 26, 1991.
