For how long is the government appointed? Procedure for appointment to the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation

The formation of the Government covers two interconnected stages, two stages. At the first stage, the institution of the head of government is formed. The Head of Government is a key and leading position in the state. Due to its significance, the procedure and procedure for appointing the Chairman of the Government are determined by the Constitution and federal constitutional law. The Constitution establishes that the Chairman of the Government is appointed by the President with the consent of the State Duma. According to the Constitution (Part 3 of Article 111), the State Duma considers the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government submitted by the President within a week from the date of submission of the proposal for the candidacy. The second stage of the formation of the Government is associated with the appointment of members of the Government: first deputy prime ministers, deputy prime minister and federal ministers. In addition, the Constitution establishes that the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, no later than a week after his appointment, submits to the President of the Russian Federation proposals on the structure of federal executive bodies. In accordance with the Federal Constitutional Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation” (Article 7), the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is appointed by the President of the Russian Federation (with the consent of the State Duma) and is dismissed by him: a) at the own request of the Chairman of the Government; b) if he is unable to fulfill his powers. At the same time, the President notifies the chambers of the Federal Assembly about the dismissal of the Chairman of the Government on the day the decision is made. The dismissal of the Chairman of the Government simultaneously entails the resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation. No one other than the President has the right to nominate a candidacy for the Chairman of the Government or submit an alternative candidacy to the Duma. The Duma can give consent to the appointment or refuse consent, but it cannot discuss any candidacy other than that submitted by the President of the Russian Federation. This achieves two important goals: the representative body participates in the appointment of the head of the Government, but is not the decisive source of granting him power, which would inevitably give rise to dependence and control.

Dissolution of the Duma is possible in the event of a three-time rejection of its nominated candidates for the Chairman of the Government (Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation

The candidate for the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation reports to the State Duma the program of the main directions of activity of the future Government and answers questions from deputies. After answering questions, representatives of factions and parliamentary groups speak for or against the nominated candidacy.

The decision to give consent to the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is made at the discretion of the State Duma by secret ballot by submitting ballots or using an electronic system. Consent to the appointment is considered received if a majority of the total number of deputies votes for the proposed candidacy. Based on the results of a secret ballot, a resolution is adopted.

If a candidate is rejected, the President of the Russian Federation will submit a new candidate for approval by the chamber within a week. In the event of a two-time rejection of the submitted candidates, the President of the Russian Federation has the right to nominate a third candidate within a week.

The composition of the Government is determined by Ch. 6 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Art. 6 of the Federal Law "On the Government of the Russian Federation" and includes members of the Government of the Russian Federation:

• Deputy Prime Ministers of the Russian Federation;
• federal ministers.

The dismissal of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation simultaneously entails the resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation.

More details

A proposal for a candidacy for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is submitted no later than two weeks after the newly elected President of the Russian Federation takes office or after the resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation, or within a week from the day the candidacy is rejected by the State Duma. The State Duma considers the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation submitted by the President of the Russian Federation within a week from the date of submission of the proposal for the candidacy. After the State Duma has rejected the presented candidates for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation three times, the President of the Russian Federation appoints the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, dissolves the State Duma and calls new elections.

Deputy Prime Ministers of the Russian Federation and federal ministers are appointed and dismissed by the President of the Russian Federation at the proposal of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. Deputy Prime Ministers of the Russian Federation and federal ministers are appointed from among citizens of the Russian Federation who do not have citizenship of a foreign state or a residence permit or other document confirming the right to permanent residence of a citizen of the Russian Federation on the territory of a foreign state.

The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, no later than a week after his appointment, submits to the President of the Russian Federation proposals on the structure of federal executive bodies and proposes to the President of the Russian Federation candidates for the positions of Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and federal ministers.

Term of office of the Government of the Russian Federation

The Constitution of the Russian Federation does not establish the term of office of the Government of the Russian Federation. But it is necessarily formed in connection with the election or re-election of the President of the Russian Federation and resigns its powers before the newly elected President of the Russian Federation. The basic formula is therefore:

• a new President - a new Government, which indirectly establishes the maximum term of office of the Government.

Comment

But this raises an important question about the legitimacy of the Duma’s consent to the appointment of the Chairman of the Government if its composition changes. Indeed, in the middle of the legislative term of the President of the Russian Federation, parliamentary elections may be held that will change the composition of the State Duma. It would be more accurate to say that such elections will always take place during the period of the presidential legislature, since even the next parliamentary elections are usually not synchronized with the date of the election of the President of the Russian Federation, especially if this does not happen if the parliamentary elections are early. However, in full accordance with the logic of the presidential form of government, the Constitution of the Russian Federation does not require new consent of the Duma for the appointment of the Chairman and reappointment of members of the current Government of the Russian Federation. Decisive, therefore, is the term of the legislature of the President of the Russian Federation, and not the term of the legislature of the State Duma.

The provision of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 116) that the Government of the Russian Federation resigns its powers to the newly elected President of the Russian Federation does not mean that this happens on the day the results of the presidential elections are announced or that it immediately ceases its activities. The President has the right to accept the resignation of the Government only when he has already assumed office, while he has no choice but to instruct the Government and its Chairman to continue to act until the formation of a new Government.

While securing the right of the State Duma to give consent (or refuse it) to the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation at the same time does not provide for such a right in relation to the dismissal of the head of the Government. From this silence follows the unconditional right of the President of the Russian Federation to release the Chairman of the Government, without applying for consent to this from the State Duma, but immediately notifying the chamber about this. The position of the President of the Russian Federation is more preferable (the notorious “vertical of power”): he has the right, at his own discretion, without consulting anyone, to decide on the resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation. This provision of the Constitution of the Russian Federation corresponds with its function to determine the main directions of domestic and foreign policy and ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of government bodies (Parts 2 and 3 of Article 80 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). It is clear that in the event of fundamental differences between the President and the Government, preference in the interests of stability of state power should be given to the President of the Russian Federation.

The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, on his own initiative, may put before the State Duma question of trust in government. This right was obviously granted so that, at a time of acute confrontation, the Government could be convinced of the trust of the majority of Duma deputies and reduce the severity of criticism directed at it. If the Duma, in response to the initiative of the Chairman, expresses no confidence in the Government, then the reaction of the President of the Russian Federation can again be twofold: within seven days, make a decision on the resignation of the Government or on the dissolution of the State Duma and calling new elections. It is difficult to imagine that the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation would undertake such an action without the consent of the President of the Russian Federation (although legally this is possible, and practically not so improbable), but then it is also clear that it proceeds from an agreement on the adoption by the President in the event of a vote of no confidence in the Duma. second decision: dissolution of the Duma and calling new elections. The Duma, of course, must understand that raising the question of trust by the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (it is clear that he resorts to this in conditions of a favorable political situation for himself) essentially leaves it no choice: it must express trust if it does not want its dissolution.

It should be noted that according to the Constitution (Part 4 of Article 117), the right to raise the issue of trust belongs not to the Government of the Russian Federation, but to its Chairman. This naturally gives rise to the assumption that the Chairman has the right to carry out this action without a collegial decision of the Government. But then it is difficult to answer the question of what his actions should be if the Government makes the opposite decision by a majority vote. Therefore, it seems more correct to understand this right Chairman as an authority based on a collectively adopted decision of the Government of the Russian Federation, especially since in the event of expressed distrust, the President decides to resign the entire Government.

But still, the involuntary resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation - on the initiative of either the Chairman of the Government or the President, as well as due to mistrust on the part of the State Duma - is possible. In all these cases, as well as in the case of resignation due to the expiration of a term, the Government of the Russian Federation, on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, continues to act until the formation of a new Government of the Russian Federation. This reinforces the objective need for continuity of activities of the Government of the Russian Federation under all conditions.

It should be taken into account that the practical applicability of the considered constitutional provisions largely depends on the balance of political forces in the Duma. The position of the Government is stronger when the majority in the chamber belongs to the party supporting the President of the Russian Federation.

Legal acts of the Government of the Russian Federation: types, procedure for preparation and adoption

Types of legal acts of the Government of the Russian Federation

General provisions defining the status of acts issued by the Government of the Russian Federation are enshrined in Art. 115 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, as well as in the Federal Constitutional Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation”.

The Constitution of the Russian Federation establishes that on the basis of and in pursuance of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal laws, regulatory decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation issues and ensures execution:

• resolutions;
• orders.

This determines the subordinate nature of acts issued by the Government, their mandatory compliance with the Constitution, laws and regulatory decrees of the President of the Russian Federation. Based on the Constitution of the Russian Federation, this also means that, within its competence, the Government of the Russian Federation has the right to issue normative legal acts.

Regulations- the most significant acts of the Government that are of a normative nature. The resolutions regulate the main issues within the competence of the Government of the Russian Federation.

By orders decisions on operational and current issues are usually formalized: orders that have normative meaning, are relatively rare, although the procedure for their adoption does not differ from the procedure for the adoption of resolutions.

Both resolutions and orders of the Government are often adopted at a meeting of the Presidium of the Government of the Russian Federation and only in some cases - individually by the Chairman of the Government. Both resolutions and orders are signed by the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Installing legal forms acts issued by the Government of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation at the same time imposes on the Government the obligation to ensure their implementation. This helps their prompt and accurate practical implementation, since most often the burden of execution falls on the same executive authorities that prepare the relevant acts.

The Constitution of the Russian Federation does not give a direct answer to the question of whether acts of the Government of the Russian Federation can cancel or suspend acts of the executive power of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. However, a constitutional basis can still be seen for answering this question in the affirmative. It is contained in the provisions of Part 2 of Art. 77, according to which, within the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the powers of the Russian Federation on subjects of joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the federal executive authorities and the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation form a unified system of executive power in the Russian Federation.

The Federal Constitutional Law of December 17, 1997 N 2-FKZ “On the Government of the Russian Federation” states that in order to ensure a combination of interests of the Russian Federation and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation on subjects of joint jurisdiction in the sphere of exercising executive power coordinates the activities of executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation . Within the limits of its powers, the Government resolves disputes and eliminates disagreements between federal executive authorities and executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. To resolve disputes and eliminate disagreements, conciliation commissions are created from representatives of interested parties. The Government of the Russian Federation makes proposals to the President of the Russian Federation on the suspension of acts of executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in case of their contradiction to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal constitutional laws, federal laws, international obligations RF or violations of human and civil rights and freedoms.

Resolutions and orders of the Government of the Russian Federation in case of their conflict with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal laws and decrees of the President of the Russian Federation may be canceled by the President of the Russian Federation. This rule seems completely natural:

1. The President of the Russian Federation is the Constitution of the Russian Federation;
2. The President of the Russian Federation essentially heads the executive branch.

The Federal Constitutional Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation” establishes that decrees and orders of the Government of the Russian Federation are subject to mandatory official publication, except for acts or their individual provisions containing information constituting a state secret or information of a confidential nature.

Acts of the Government of the Russian Federation affecting the rights, freedoms and duties of man and citizen come into force no earlier than the day of their publication. Other resolutions come into force from the date of their signing, unless the resolutions themselves provide for a different procedure for their entry into force. Orders of the Government of the Russian Federation come into force from the date of their signing.

The procedure for preparing and adopting legal acts of the Government of the Russian Federation

The activities of the Government of the Russian Federation are carried out in accordance with the Federal Constitutional Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation”, with the Regulations approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Consideration in the Government of issues related to its powers is carried out at meetings of the Government, the Presidium of the Government by the Chairman of the Government and his deputies (in accordance with the distribution of responsibilities), at meetings of coordination and advisory bodies formed by the Government with the participation of representatives of interested federal executive bodies, other bodies and organizations.

Government meetings are held as necessary, but at least once a month. A Government meeting is considered valid if at least half of the Government members are present. Meetings are held under the leadership of the Chairman of the Government or his deputy. At meetings of the Government, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation can preside. Government decisions are made, as a rule, by general consent; By decision of the presiding officer, a vote may be held, in which case the decision is made by a majority vote of those present.

Preparatory work for the meetings is strictly ordered. Heads of federal executive authorities, executive authorities of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, other state bodies and organizations entrusted with the preparation of relevant materials bear personal responsibility for their quality and timeliness of submission. The draft agenda for a Government meeting is formed by the head of the Government Staff in agreement with the Deputy Prime Ministers and presented to the Chairman of the Government. The draft agenda for the meeting and relevant materials approved by him are sent to its participants no later than five days before the date of the meeting.

Both members of the Government and persons invited to the meeting to participate in the consideration of relevant issues participate in Government meetings. For each of the issues considered at the Government meeting, persons directly related to the relevant issue are invited.

On issues considered at a meeting of the Government, protocol decisions are drawn up, resolutions and orders of the Government are adopted and issued in accordance with the established procedure. The minutes are signed by the person presiding over the meeting.

Control over the execution of instructions given at Government meetings is carried out by the Government Office. The Government Apparatus is formed in accordance with the Federal Constitutional Law to ensure the activities of the Government and organize control over the implementation by executive authorities of decisions adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation. The Government Office interacts with the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation and the apparatus of the chambers of the Federal Assembly.

Since the Government accepts a large number of decisions, the introduction of their drafts must be strictly regulated. For this purpose, it has been established that draft decisions (decrees and orders) of the Government and other acts are submitted to the Government by its members, federal executive bodies and other government bodies. Proposals from citizens, enterprises, organizations and institutions received by the Government regarding the adoption of Government decisions are sent for preliminary consideration to executive authorities. Before their submission to the Government, draft decisions are subject to mandatory coordination with interested government bodies, with state, and, if necessary, other organizations. If draft decisions are of a normative nature, then they are subject to approval by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation after their agreement with interested bodies and organizations.

The Government considers draft acts of the President of the Russian Federation and draft federal laws that are submitted by the Government to the President of the Russian Federation or to the State Duma.

The current Prime Minister Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, in accordance with Article 24 of the Federal Constitutional Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation,” heads ... ... Wikipedia

CHAIRMAN OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION- (Prime minister of the Russian Federation) leader, head of the Russian government. The procedure for his appointment, his role, tasks and functions are determined by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. In accordance with Article 111, the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation... ... Power. Policy. Civil service. Dictionary

CHAIRMAN OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION- an official who determines the main directions of activity of the Government of the Russian Federation and organizes its work. IN foreign countries The official title of the head of government is called prime minister. In accordance with the Federal Constitutional... ...

CHAIRMAN OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION- one of the highest officials of the state. Heads the Government of the Russian Federation. Appointed to the position by the President of the Russian Federation with the consent of the State Duma (State Duma). Released from office by the President of the Russian Federation. May resign or be sent to... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Constitutional Law

The article provides information about the composition of the Presidium (in 1991 1992 Collegium) of the Government of the Russian Federation since 1991. In the government of M. M. Kasyanov (2000 2004), the first government of M. E. Fradkov (2004) ... Wikipedia

Politics Portal:Politics Russia ... Wikipedia

PRESIDIUM OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION- a permanent body formed under the Government of the Russian Federation. Composition of P.P. RF is determined personally, indicating the position held. By Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 1, 1998 No. 1145 On the formation of the Presidium of the Government of the Russian... Encyclopedic Dictionary “Constitutional Law of Russia”

COMPOSITION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION- an exhaustive list of persons provided for by the Federal Constitution, which includes the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, his deputies and federal ministers. The Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Federal Constitutional Law of December 17, 1997 About... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary “Constitutional Law of Russia”

MEMBER OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION- an official who, in accordance with the Federal Constitution, is part of the Government of the Russian Federation. Ch.P. of the Russian Federation are the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, his deputies and federal ministers. The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is appointed by the President of the Russian Federation... Encyclopedic Dictionary “Constitutional Law of Russia”

FORMATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION- the procedure provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation for the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and the approval, at his proposal, by the President of the Russian Federation of other members of the Government. F.P. The Russian Federation represents two interconnected stages, two stages. At the first stage… … Encyclopedic Dictionary “Constitutional Law of Russia”

Books

• Confidential: The Middle East on stage and behind the scenes
• Confidentially. The Middle East on stage and behind the scenes, Evgeniy Maksimovich Primakov. Evgeniy Maksimovich Primakov has been involved in the Middle East for more than half a century as a journalist, scientist and politician: correspondent for the Pravda newspaper, deputy director, and after some time director...

The procedure for appointing the head of government is ultimately determined by the forms of government, which are very unequal. In a presidential republic, the head of government (where he exists) is independently appointed by the president without any parliamentary participation, while the head of state, when forming a government, is guided not by the party composition of parliament, but by his own state choice. Thus, in a presidential republic the extra-parliamentary method of forming a government dominates. Most often, the government here is one-party, consisting of representatives of the presidential party, usually headed by him. Such a government, although politically more stable, is nevertheless much inferior to a parliamentary government in terms of representativeness.

In countries with a parliamentary regime of government, the government is formed on a parliamentary basis and mainly from the parliamentary environment. Here, the head of government becomes the leader of the predominant parliamentary party or party coalition, who is given the mandate to form a government. The government here remains in power as long as it enjoys parliamentary support. In countries with a parliamentary system of government, the head of state “is obliged to appoint as members of the government only those persons who enjoy the support of the majority of members of parliament, and to dismiss them as soon as the ministers lose such support. In other words, the head of state must appoint as ministers representatives of the party (parties) that has the majority of seats in parliament (in many Western European countries - a majority in the lower house of parliament)”43. So, for example, according to the Constitution of Albania, the President of the Republic, at the beginning of legislative activity, and also when the place of prime minister is vacant, appoints a prime minister at the proposal of parties or party coalitions that have a majority of seats in Kuvenda (Part 1 of Article 96 of the Constitution)44.

As for semi-presidential republics, synthesizing the features of presidential and parliamentary government,... then the appointment of the first minister in them is made, as a rule, by the head of state with the participation of parliament, which usually consists of giving consent to the appointment. Thus, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Prime Minister is appointed by the President with the consent of the parliament (Article 118 of the Constitution). In the Republic of Belarus, the Prime Minister is appointed by the President with the consent of the House of Representatives (Article 106 of the Constitution). In the Republic of Lithuania

the Prime Minister is appointed and dismissed with the approval of the Seimas

The President (Article 92 of the Constitution). The peculiarity of the formation of the position of head of government in semi-presidential republics is that the president appoints the prime minister independently, guided by his own choice, and not by the party composition of parliament. However, the parliamentary position affects the preferences of the head of state when the government requires parliamentary trust (investiture) to begin its activities, which forces the head of state to take into account the opinion of the parliamentary majority when appointing the head of government. The requirement for parliamentary investiture is contained in the constitutions of many

semi-resident republics.

Thus, in the Czech Republic, no later than thirty days after its appointment, the Government must appear before the Chamber of Deputies and ask for a vote of confidence. If the Chamber does not express confidence in the newly appointed Government, the procedure for appointing and representing the Government is repeated. If in this case the House of Representatives does not express confidence in the Government, the President appoints the Chairman of the Government at the proposal of the Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies. If in this case the Government does not receive confidence, then the President dissolves the lower house (Article 68 of the Constitution)1.

Often, a request for investiture is made in the form of presenting to parliament (the House of Parliament) a government program (declaration), the rejection (disapproval) of which is tantamount to a denial of confidence. Thus, according to the French Constitution, the Prime Minister, after discussion in the Council of Ministers, raises before the National Assembly the question of the responsibility of the Government in connection with its program or general political declaration (Article 49 of the Constitution). This requirement forces the French president to appoint as prime minister a person who enjoys the support of the lower house of parliament, even if he is in direct opposition to the president, which creates a so-called regime. coexistence or cohabitation, which has repeatedly occurred in the history of the V Republic, when the president and the parliamentary majority adhere to different party orientations. As noted by A.D. Kerimov, “if the presidential and parliamentary majorities do not coincide... the head of state faces the need to appoint a representative to the post of Prime Minister, or rather the leader of the forces opposing him, who have a majority in the lower house of the country’s highest representative institution. As a result, a political opponent, perhaps even a competitor, and in this sense an adversary of the President, becomes the Prime Minister.”45

When referring to the position of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, it should be noted that the procedure for filling this position has undergone a noticeable evolution in the process of constitutional reform in Russia.

After the introduction of the post of President of the Russian Federation, he was given the appointment of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation, which required the consent of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation - the parliament of the perestroika period. Other members of the Government were appointed by the President and dismissed by him from office on the proposal of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (Article 123 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation)46.

In the presidential constitutional draft introduced by B.N. Yeltsin for consideration at the Constitutional Conference, the issues of forming the head of the Government looked as follows. The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation was to be appointed by the Federation Council within two weeks after the nomination was submitted to him by the President of the Russian Federation. If the Federation Council rejected the candidacy presented by the President, the latter, within a week, submitted the issue of appointing the Chairman of the Government for new consideration by the Federation Council. If the Federation Council rejected a candidate nominated by the President for the second time, the issue of appointing the Chairman of the Government was submitted by the President within a week for joint consideration by the chambers of the Federal Assembly. The appointment of the Chairman of the Government in this case should have been made no later than a month from the date of submission of the proposal by the President. If during this period the Chairman of the Government was not appointed by the Federal Assembly, the President could decide on the early dissolution of the Federal Assembly and the appointment of an acting Chairman of the Government (Article 106)\

The advantage of this model, in comparison with the Soviet ones, was that the issues of forming the position of the head of government, and therefore the government as a whole, were resolved in the context of the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances, using the institution of parliamentary dissolution, which indicated the importance that the project assigned the post of head of government. Its obvious drawback was the decisive participation in the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation by the Federation Council, that is, the upper house of parliament, which is not functionally adapted to forming a government, which in the world is usually entrusted to the lower house of parliament.

The issues of forming the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation became the subject of heated discussion at the Constitutional Conference, many participants of which proposed that the appointment of the head of the Government be transferred to the President of the Russian Federation, taking into account the projected form of semi-presidential government, in which the formation of the government rests with the head of state. Thus, director of the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences B.I. Topornin, at a meeting of the working commission on finalizing the draft Constitution of the Russian Federation on June 22, 1993, remarked: “After all, the first question that arises is: does the State Duma or parliament even need to appoint the Chairman of the Government?... The appointment of the Chairman of the Government should not be a matter for parliament, because that this imposes too much responsibility on parliament and changes, in general, the system that we here accepted as the original one”47.

In the final edition new Constitution Russian Federation, the formula for appointing the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation has acquired the following form: The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is appointed by the President

of the Russian Federation with the consent of the State Duma (Part 1 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).

This form generally corresponds to the parameters of presidential-parliamentary government, in which the government is formed by the head of state with the indirect participation of parliament. The advantage of this model is that the position of head of government is formed with the participation of different branches of government, which ensures the autonomy and relative independence of this government figure.

A proposal for a candidacy for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is submitted by the President no later than two weeks after the newly elected President of the Russian Federation takes office or after the resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation, or within a week from the date of rejection of the candidacy for the Chairman of the Government by the State Duma (Part 2 of Article 111). The State Duma considers the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation submitted by the President of the Russian Federation within a week from the date of submission of the proposal for the candidacy (Part 3).

After the State Duma has rejected the submitted candidates for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation three times, the President of the Russian Federation appoints the Chairman of the Government, dissolves the State Duma and calls new elections (Part 4).

An obvious drawback of the constitutional mechanism for the formation of the post of head of the federal Government is the absence of a fixed term for the dissolution of the State Duma in the event of three-time rejection of presidential candidates, which can delay the process of dissolving the lower house or, on the contrary, make it fleeting, excluding the possibility of the parties reaching a compromise that could avoid parliamentary dissolution.

The constitutional mechanism for the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is specified in the Rules of Procedure of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, which contains a special chapter (17) “Giving consent

To the President of the Russian Federation for the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation”48. Thus, giving consent to the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation forms an independent parliamentary procedure. “Parliamentary procedures can be defined as the methods, methods and methods of parliamentary activity established by the rules of law with the aim of giving it legal significance”49.

According to the Regulations, if the President of the Russian Federation submits to the State Duma a proposal on the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Chairman of the State Duma immediately notifies the Duma deputies about this (Part 2 of Article 144). The State Duma considers the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation submitted by the President of the Russian Federation within a week from the date of submission of the proposal for the candidacy (Part 3 of Article 144).

The President of the Russian Federation or his authorized representative in the State Duma officially nominates a candidate for the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. The candidate for the position of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation presents to the State Duma a program of the main directions of activity of the future Government of the Russian Federation. Before discussing a candidacy, a candidate for the position of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation answers questions from deputies within the time determined by the State Duma, but not more than 30 minutes. After answering questions from deputies, representatives of factions and deputy groups speak out for or against the nominated candidacy (Article 145).

The decision of the State Duma to give consent to the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is made at the discretion of the State Duma by secret ballot by submitting ballots or using an electronic vote counting system, or by open voting if such a decision is made by a majority vote of the total number of deputies of the State Duma. The consent of the State Duma to the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is considered received if a majority of the total number of deputies of the State Duma votes for the proposed candidacy. The voting result is formalized by a resolution of the State Duma (Article 146).

If the State Duma rejects a candidacy for the position of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation, within a week from the date of its rejection, makes a proposal for a new candidacy, the discussion and approval of which is carried out in a similar manner (Article 147).

In the event of a two-time rejection by the State Duma of submitted candidates for the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation, within a week from the date of rejection of the second candidacy, has the right to nominate a third candidate. The discussion and approval of the third candidate for the position of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation takes place within the time frame and in the manner provided for the discussion and approval of previous candidates (Article 148).

In practice, the President presented his candidacies to the State Duma in a special letter addressed to the Chairman of the State Duma, which he read out at the plenary session of the chamber. However, to present the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government on May 8, 2008 at the plenary meeting of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, President of Russia D.A. Medvedev arrived in person - an unprecedented fact.

It is noteworthy that, according to the Rules of Procedure of the State Duma, the candidate for the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation presents to the chamber a program of the main directions of activity of the future Government. Regarding this norm, D.M. Stepanenko points out: “In our opinion, the Rules of the Lower House have clearly gone beyond the scope of their subject, which is the regulation of parliamentary procedures, establishing a substantive norm of essentially constitutional significance. The responsibilities of other branches of government in relation to the legislative branch cannot be established by regulatory norms. The Rules of the State Duma, being an internal procedural act of the lower chamber, cannot contain binding norms in relation to the President or the Government of the Russian Federation. The presence of a requirement to submit a government program to the State Duma complicates the procedure for appointing the head of the Government, which is already associated with a possible conflict between the chamber and the head of state. Rejection of the government program by the State Duma will in fact mean a vote of no confidence in the Government, which, logically, should lead to a situation of government resignation. It is difficult to understand how the Government, formed with the participation of the State Duma, can build its activities in the absence of parliamentary trust”50.

The author, in our opinion, is too categorical; the given regulatory norm does not at all formulate the responsibilities of other branches of government in relation to the lower chamber, since it is not talking about the Chairman of the Government, but only about his candidacy.

We evaluate the institution of the program of a candidate for prime minister positively; the presence of such a program allows the parliament to adequately assess the prospects for government policy and the personality of the candidate. It is unlikely that disapproval of such a program is tantamount to a parliamentary vote of no confidence in the government; after all, we are not talking about the government’s program, but only about the program of the main directions of activity of the future government, that is, about the general vision of government policy and its directions by the candidate for Chairman of the Government.

At the same time, the Rules of the State Duma do not define the format of this program, which in practice can lead to its arbitrary rejection by the State Duma. In any case, a candidate for Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation cannot be required to present a detailed program of government activities, since the presence of such a program requires, at a minimum, the presence of the government itself, which approves such a program. We can only talk about the draft of such a program, its general parameters and directions. It is better to call such a program a political program or a declaration with which an applicant for the title of head of the Government speaks before the deputies of the State Duma, which should be enshrined in the Rules of Procedure of the chamber.

It should also be noted that it is only appropriate for a new applicant for the title of head of the federal government to come up with such a program. It is unlikely that this needs to be done by a person who is again presented by the President to the State Duma for approval after, say, the Government has resigned its powers to the newly elected President, which should be reflected in legislation.

As practice shows, the program speeches of the candidate for Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation are devoted to key problems of government policy and are based in basic terms on the annual messages of the head of state to parliament. Thus, the speech at a meeting of the State Duma of the candidate for Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Mikhail Fradkov contained a promise to carry out an anti-bureaucratic restructuring of the Government, in particular, to reduce the number of deputy heads of the Government to one, which was soon done. The candidate for prime minister presented a general scheme for the reorganization of the executive branch, which was to become three-level: ministries, federal services and federal agencies. Among the key issues of government policy, Fradkov also named issues of public safety, tax reform and reform of the housing and communal services51. The requirement for a candidate for prime minister to present a certain program is contained in many foreign constitutions. Thus, in Spain, the candidate for the post of Prime Minister submits the political program of the government to the Congress of Deputies for consideration (Part 2 of Article 99 of the Constitution). In Portugal, the Government program is submitted to the Assembly of the Republic for consideration within a period not exceeding ten days after the appointment of the Prime Minister, in the form of a statement by the head of the Government (Article 192 of the Constitution)1.

The demand for the dissolution of the State Duma by the President of the Russian Federation after its three-time rejection of candidacies for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is assessed extremely negatively by many authors, as a way of open pressure on the State Duma by the President, allegedly actually depriving the lower chamber of the opportunity for free choice. So, V.B. Isakov believes that Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is designed in such a way that it forces the State Duma either to agree with the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation proposed by the President, or to deliberately dissolve itself. Thus, the President of the Russian Federation always has at hand a fail-safe mechanism for dissolving parliament - it is enough to only propose for appointment three times a candidate who is obviously unacceptable to deputies. Without receiving the consent of parliament, the President of the Russian Federation appoints the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation “with his own authority,” and this decision does not require subsequent confirmation by the newly elected State Duma. The government resigns its powers not before the Duma, but before the newly elected President of the Russian Federation (Article 116 of the Constitution). “Thus,” the author writes, “the State Duma is actually deprived of constitutional levers of influence on the activities of the Government, with the exception of giving consent to the appointment of the Chairman of the Government

Russian Federation... The constitutional norms discussed above on the dissolution of the State Duma indicate a violation of the “balance of powers” ​​in Russian Constitution, the obvious dominance of presidential power over the other elected branch of government - the representative branch"52.

V.N. Suvorov, in turn, believes that if the Duma firmly, consistently disagrees with the proposed candidates, the Government is formed contrary to the position of this chamber of parliament and without its participation (unless one considers the negative impact as such). “It would literally be a presidential government, formed independently of parliament. When the newly elected State Duma convenes after early elections, the Constitution of the Russian Federation does not require consent to the already completed appointment of the Chairman of the Government or to the continuation of his work. The Government formed by the President continues to exercise its powers. This is an example of the fact that within the framework of the current Constitution of the Russian Federation there can be a Government, in the formation of which the parliament took absolutely no part, and evidence of the predominance of the features of a presidential republic in the modern Russian system state power"53.

We consider the very fact of the dissolution of the State Duma due to disapproval of the candidacies of the Chairman of the Government to be logical, since the position of the State Duma prevents the formation of the Government, which, as a constitutional body of power, cannot take place without its head. A similar basis for dissolution appears in many foreign constitutions and is an inevitable consequence of the divergence in the positions of the head of state and the representative office. Thus, in the Republic of Belarus, the powers of the House of Representatives can be terminated early if there is a two-time refusal to give consent to the appointment of the Prime Minister (Article 94 of the Constitution); in Bulgaria, if no agreement is reached on the formation of a government,

The President appoints a service government, dissolves the People's Assembly and calls new elections (Part 5 of Article 99 of the Constitution); in Hungary, the President of the Republic may dissolve the State Assembly if, in the event of termination of the powers of the Government, the candidate proposed by the President of the Republic for the post of Prime Minister is not elected within forty-eight days from the date of the first proposal on this issue (clause 3 § 28 of the Constitution) 54.

The remark that when the State Duma is dissolved, the President appoints the Chairman of the Government, whose candidacy is thus no longer agreed upon by the lower house, which supposedly excludes parliamentary participation in the appointment of the head of government, does not seem to be substantiated. The resumption of the procedure for approving the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation by the new composition of the State Duma, elected to replace the dissolved one, can lead to the same result, that is, a three-fold rejection of presidential candidacies, which in practice will only lead to a new dissolution of the State Duma, and so on ad infinitum. The appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation by the President after the dissolution of the State Duma in this situation seems completely justified. Without the Chairman, the Government cannot be formed, which means that government activities turn out to be impossible, and a delay in the appointment of the head of government is fraught with a serious constitutional crisis. As rightly noted in the literature, “The government, as a key executive body, must function constantly, as required by the need to ensure the functioning of the state and society. IN modern conditions the state cannot long time to do without the legitimate composition of the Government”55.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in one of its decisions noted that the dissolution of the State Duma as a constitutional and legal way of resolving possible conflicts between the President of the Russian Federation and the State Duma during the formation of the Government of the Russian Federation or refusal of confidence in the latter pursues the constitutional goal of ensuring the timely formation of the Government of the Russian Federation or, accordingly, the continuation functioning of the Government of the Russian Federation, supported by the President of the Russian Federation despite the lack of confidence expressed in the Government by the State Duma.

Commenting on this legal position, B.A. Strashun consistently notes that the procedure for forming the Government of the Russian Federation in the absence of agreement between the President and the State Duma on the issue of the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government can turn out to be very lengthy, and this negatively affects the functioning of the entire state mechanism. “The leadership of federal executive bodies feels insecure in a government crisis and is usually afraid to make any responsible decisions, especially related to the expenditure of public funds: if such decisions are disavowed by the new leadership;;! the loss of these funds may be irreversible.”56

It should be taken into account that the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is the only person authorized to replace the President of Russia, therefore a vacancy in this position can lead to a power vacuum. At the same time, it is by no means excluded that the President, having dissolved the lower chamber, will appoint a person as head of the Government who was not the subject of approval in the State Duma. This concern is expressed, for example, by S.L. Avakyan, who writes: “Can the President, having not received support for three candidates, appoint as Chairman of the Government a person who was not discussed at all by the State Duma. We noted that Art. 111

The Constitution does not expressly prohibit this option. It only states that after three rejections of submitted candidates, the President appoints the Chairman of the Government, but does not indicate that this must be one of the previously submitted candidates. However, such an option would be blatantly illogical: after all, the President makes the Chairman of the Government a person towards whom the Duma has not expressed any relationship at all, and at the same time (according to Part 4 of Article 111) the President dissolves the State Duma and calls new elections.”57

The fear of some authors who believe that the President may seek the dissolution of the State Duma by offering it obviously unacceptable candidates for the post of Chairman of the Government does not seem to be well founded. Thus, S. A. Ignatov argues that “the President can deliberately dissolve the State Duma by offering it three candidates for the post of Chairman of the Government that are obviously unacceptable to it”58. The author does not take into account that the dissolution of parliament is a very unpopular measure, which the head of state resorts to extremely carefully. By dissolving the lower house of parliament, the head of state of the Constitution does not directly prohibit this option. It only states that after three rejections of submitted candidates, the President appoints the Chairman of the Government, but does not indicate that this must be one of the previously submitted candidates. However, such an option would be blatantly illogical: after all, the President makes the Chairman of the Government a person towards whom the Duma has not expressed any relationship at all, and at the same time (according to Part 4 of Article 111) the President dissolves the State Duma and calls new elections.”59

Such a fear, in our opinion, is unfounded; of course, hypothetically, the head of state could appoint as Chairman of the Government a person who was not even discussed by the State Duma, but there would be no reason for this. Such a confrontation between the head of state and parliament can only paralyze the government, since the success of government activities directly depends on the willingness of parliament to support government bills. The government is always under the threat of a parliamentary vote of no confidence, which, under certain circumstances, can cause the resignation of the government, which forces the latter to seek cooperation with parliament.

The fear of some authors who believe that the President may seek the dissolution of the State Duma by offering it obviously unacceptable candidates for the post of Chairman of the Government does not seem to be well founded. Thus, S. A. Ignatov argues that “the President can deliberately dissolve the State Duma by offering it three candidates for the post of Chairman of the Government that are obviously unacceptable to it”60. The author does not take into account that the dissolution of parliament is a very unpopular measure, which the head of state resorts to extremely carefully. When dissolving the lower house of parliament, the head of state must take into account that if a new State Duma is elected with the same party composition, this will mean a political defeat for the President, who will no longer be able to openly neglect the parliamentary position. Thus, French President Mitterrand dissolved the French National Assembly in 1981 only when he was confident in the outcome of the parliamentary elections, in which the presidential party actually won. B.A. In this regard, Strashun rightly notes: “Of course, theoretically it can be assumed that the conflict will continue, including a new dissolution of the State Duma, but in practice the likelihood of such a development of events is almost zero. This would mean that the President does not take into account the will of the electoral corps and thereby violates the fundamental constitutional principle of popular sovereignty, in particular Part 3 of Art. 3 of the Constitution, according to which the highest direct expression of the power of the people is a referendum and free elections”61.

Practice shows that the firmness of parliament in the matter of appointing the head of government can change the position of the head of state and incline him to a reasonable compromise. Thus, during the default period of August-September 1998, the President of the Russian Federation twice proposed to the State Duma the candidacy of B.S. for the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. Chernomyrdin, which the State Duma consistently rejected with increasing negative results. Having good reason to believe that the State Duma will reject this candidacy for the third time, President B.N. Yeltsin submitted the candidacy of E.M. to the lower house for consideration. Primakov, which the State Duma, as he knew, was quite happy with. This indicates that the participation of the State Duma in the formation of the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is by no means ritual.

We should not forget that the State Duma retains the right to express no confidence in the Government of the Russian Federation at any time and without formal grounds. Moreover, on this basis, it cannot be dissolved by the President within a year after its election (Part 3 of Article 109 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). If the President appoints a person disliked by the Duma majority as Chairman of the Government, then the Duma can easily achieve his resignation by expressing no confidence in the Government within a year after its formation. Some authors believe that the President's presentation of the same candidate to the State Duma three times is a form of pressure on the State Duma in order to incline it to a positive vote. S.A. Avakyan, for example, considers “the President’s three-time proposal of the same candidate, which is unacceptable to the State Duma, to be absolutely illogical. This situation obviously suggests that the President is either putting pressure on the Duma, trying to subordinate it to his will, or does not want to cooperate with the State Duma, deliberately coming into conflict with it and provoking its dissolution”62. Here, however, it should be taken into account that the Constitution entrusts the right to appoint the Chairman of the Government to the President, but this issue, by virtue of the Constitution, is only agreed upon with the State Duma, therefore the advantage in this personnel issue should belong to the head of state, who forms Russian government. S.A. Avakyan himself sees the positive side of such a procedure, noting that “initial rejection of the candidacy in the State Duma, an unsuccessful presentation of the program by the candidate, vague promises about the composition of the Government, etc. are possible. In the future, the problems will be resolved, so the second submission of the same candidacy will be painless. It is also possible that after rejecting the second candidate, which seemed even more unacceptable to the deputies, in comparison they will discover the advantages of the first of the proposed candidates, and therefore will be more favorable towards his secondary proposal by the President in the third round.”63

As for the President’s pressure on the State Duma, it fits well into the scheme of checks and balances, which presupposes the possibility of legal influence of one power on another (including preventive), up to coercion and constitutional responsibility, if this does not upset the overall balance of power.

It should be noted here that the question of whether the President of the Russian Federation can present the same candidate to the State Duma three times has become the subject of heated political debate and the official interpretation of the Constitution by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. The State Duma appealed to the Constitutional Court with a request to provide an interpretation of Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which determines the procedure for calling the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation to the post, namely, to clarify whether the President of the Russian Federation has the right to again present a candidacy for Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation rejected by the State Duma and what are the legal consequences of the three-time rejection by the State Duma of the same candidate for the specified position.

The State Duma insisted on the option that, within the meaning of the constitutional provisions, the President of the Russian Federation does not have the right to repeatedly nominate the same candidacy for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, and the State Duma can be dissolved by the President only after it rejects three different candidacies for the Chairman of the Government submitted by him, that is, under “ presented candidates,” according to the applicant, Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation refers to different persons.

In its Resolution No. 28-P of December 11, 1998 “On the interpretation of the provisions of Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation”64, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation noted that in the literal sense of Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, assessed in conjunction with other provisions of this article, the phrase “three-fold rejection of the submitted candidates for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation” can mean both a three-fold rejection of a candidacy for the position and a three-fold rejection of the presented persons proposed for the position. “It follows from this that the text of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation” in itself does not exclude any of the two named options.

Constitutionally - legal meaning The provisions of Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Constitutional Court noted, can and should be identified taking into account the goals pursued by the constitutional legislator and laid down in these provisions:

The legal logic of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, considered in conjunction with its Articles 83 (clause “a”), 84 (clause “b”) and 103 (clause “a” of Part I), according to the Constitutional Court, is that, in the conditions of the division of state power in the Russian Federation into legislative, executive and judicial (Article 10 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation), do not allow their confrontation, which is not consistent with the fact that the only source from which they stem and the bearer of the sovereignty they embody is the multinational people of the Russian Federation . The indicated fundamental provisions underlying the organization of power in a democratic state governed by the rule of law also determine the need to obtain the consent of the State Duma to appoint the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation proposed by the President of the Russian Federation. At the same time, by defining the conditions and procedure for the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides for ways to overcome possible disagreements between the branches of government in order to prevent the formation from being delayed and, as a result, blocking the activities of the Government of the Russian Federation as one of the institutional elements of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation (Article 11, part 1).

From Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in conjunction with other constitutional provisions relating to the status of the head of state, according to the Constitutional Court, it follows that the choice of the candidate for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation presented to the State Duma is the prerogative of the President of the Russian Federation. The Constitution of the Russian Federation, without limiting this right, allows the President of the Russian Federation to determine the specific option for its implementation, namely, to make a proposal for the same candidate twice or three times, or to present a new candidate each time. In turn, the State Duma participates in the appointment of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, giving consent or refusing consent to the appointment of the proposed candidate. At the same time, the Constitution of the Russian Federation does not imply the possibility of legal restrictions on the named powers of the participants in this process.

The goal of establishing civil peace and harmony, proclaimed in the preamble of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, also determines the need for coordinated functioning and interaction of government bodies, which, in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, is ensured by the President of the Russian Federation (Article 80, part 2). Otherwise, it does not correspond to the constitutional purpose of state power and threatens the stability of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation as a democratic state governed by the rule of law.

From Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in conjunction with its articles 10, 11 (part 1), 80 (parts 2 and 3), 83 (paragraph "a"), 84 (paragraph "b"), 103 (paragraph "a" of part" 1), 110 (part 1) and 115 (part 1), which determine the place of the Government of the Russian Federation in the system of state power and the conditions and procedure for appointing its Chairman, also follows the need for coordinated actions of the President of the Russian Federation and the State Duma in the course of exercising their powers in the procedure for appointing the Chairman Government of the Russian Federation. Therefore, this procedure involves seeking agreement between them in order to eliminate emerging contradictions regarding the candidacy for this position, which is possible on the basis of the forms of interaction provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation or those that do not contradict it, developing in the process of exercising the powers of the head of state and in parliamentary practice.

As the Constitutional Court indicated, the practice of applying Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation reveals various approaches to the implementation of the powers enshrined in it, including approval of the proposed candidacy for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation at the first submission, presentation of the same candidate three times, as well as the use of conciliation procedures after the candidate was rejected twice .

This thesis of the Constitutional Court was based on the already existing practice of appointing the head of the Government with the participation of the State Duma, which included the President repeatedly presenting one candidate. Thus, in April 1998, the President three times proposed the same candidacy to the State Duma, S.V. Kiriyenko, which did not raise any objections in the State Duma at that time, at least in all

thus, agreement with such a procedure.

The Constitutional Court allowed the formation of a constitutional custom based on any one variant of interaction between the head of state and the State Duma from those permitted by Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and adequate to the goals of the stable functioning of the constitutional system, taking into account the historical context. The practice of appointing the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation similar options used. Within the meaning of Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Constitutional Court further noted, the obligatory consequence of the three-time rejection by the State Duma of candidates for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation submitted by the President of the Russian Federation - regardless of which of the possible options for presenting candidates was used - is the appointment by the President of the Russian Federation of the Chairman of the Government , dissolution of the State Duma and calling new elections. This constitutional and legal method of resolving the disagreement that arose between the President of the Russian Federation and the State Duma using the mechanism of free elections corresponds to the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation as a democratic state governed by the rule of law.

Based on this, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation ruled that the provision of Part 4 of Article 111 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation on the three-fold rejection of submitted candidacies for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation by the State Duma, in conjunction with other provisions of this article, means that the President of the Russian Federation, when submitting proposals to the State Duma on candidates for the position of Chairman of the Government The Russian Federation has the right to present the same candidate twice or three times, or to present a new candidate each time. The right of the President of the Russian Federation to propose this or that candidacy and insist on its approval, on the one hand, and the right of the State Duma to consider the presented candidacy and decide on consent to the appointment, on the other, must be implemented taking into account constitutional requirements for the coordinated functioning and interaction of participants in this process , including on the basis of the forms of interaction provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation or those that do not contradict it, which develop in the process of exercising the powers of the head of state and in parliamentary practice. After a three-time rejection of candidates for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation submitted by the President of the Russian Federation - regardless of whether a new candidate was presented each time or the same candidate twice or three times - the State Duma is subject to dissolution.

The position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on this issue seems quite justified, the invariance of presidential actions to present the candidate (candidates) to the State Duma

The Prime Ministers are fully consistent with the role of the head of state, called upon by the Constitution to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of government bodies. As the Constitutional Court logically noted, when establishing the functions and powers of federal government bodies, the Constitution of the Russian Federation is based on the nature of their constitutional relationships. By virtue of his place in the system of separation of powers, the President of the Russian Federation, as head of state, determines, in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws, the main directions of the domestic and foreign policy of the state, the implementation of which is entrusted to the Government of the Russian Federation. “This is precisely what determines the powers of the President of the Russian Federation to form the Government of the Russian Federation, determine the directions of its activities and control them, as well as the constitutional responsibility of the President of the Russian Federation for the activities of the Government of the Russian Federation. This implies the role of the President of the Russian Federation in determining the personal composition of the Government, including in the selection of a candidate and appointment to the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation”65.

It is regrettable that the above decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation was not implemented by the State Duma, which retained the wording of Article 147 of the Rules66, which still requires the President to submit a new candidate in the event of the State Duma rejecting a candidacy for the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.

When studying this problem, the position of the developers of the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993 is of interest, who, as evidenced by the materials of the Constitutional Conference, had in mind the option in which

The President may present to the State Duma either one or different candidates for the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. Yes, at the meeting working group on finalizing the draft Constitution of the Russian Federation of June 24, 1993, A. A. Kotenkov, regarding the procedure for appointment to the post of head of the Government, said: “The President represents three times. We do not indicate which candidates. He can imagine the same person three times, he can present different people three times. This is the President’s business in the end.”67. This position did not raise any objections among the participants of the Constitutional Conference.

While supporting the President’s right to propose different candidates for the post of Chairman of the Central Government, we nevertheless believe that in order to avoid excessive pressure on the State Duma from the head of state, it is sufficient to provide the President with the opportunity to propose the same candidate to the State Duma twice in order to the other candidate was a new person.

It seems that the approval of the candidacy of the future head of the Government should be carried out by the President with the State Duma even before the start of the official vote, which will avoid acute conflicts accompanying the passage of this issue in the State Duma. At the Constitutional Conference L.N. Topornin proposed including relevant proposals in the constitutional text, speaking as follows: “The President appoints the Chairman of the Government after consultation. It is possible - after consultation with the heads of the chambers...”68. The need for coordination is also mentioned in the decisions of the lower chamber. Thus, the Resolution of the State Duma of April 1, 1998 “On measures related to the formation of the Government of the Russian Federation” states that “the introduction by the President of the Russian Federation of the candidacy of a new

The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation without discussion with the leading political forces of the country does not agree with the constructive interaction of state authorities declared by him.” The President was asked to hold a round table or other conciliation procedures with the participation of representatives of the chambers of the Federal Assembly on the issue of candidacies for the post of Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The practice of preliminary approval of the prime minister's candidacy with parliamentary circles is widely represented in foreign countries. Thus, in Portugal, the Prime Minister is appointed by the President after consultations with the political parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic^ and taking into account the results of the elections (Article 187 of the Constitution)69.

Consultations with the State Duma, in any case, are necessary when it rejects a presidential candidacy(s). It is noteworthy that if the legislative (representative) body of state power of a subject of the Russian Federation rejects the candidacy of the President of the Russian Federation for the position of the highest official of a subject of the Russian Federation, the President is obliged to conduct appropriate consultations with the legislative (representative) body of the subject of the Russian Federation (clause 4.1. Article 9 of the Federal Law "On general principles organizations of legislative (representative) and executive bodies of state power of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation

Federation")^. But if such consultations are mandatory in

towards the top manager executive body state power of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, then such consultations are even more necessary in the process of forming the position of a senior leader federal body executive power. Based on the above, it is necessary, in our opinion, to normatively establish the obligation of the President of the Russian Federation to hold consultations with Duma factions on the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation after its rejection by the State Duma. Proposals from parliamentary factions, of course, can only be of a recommendatory nature, which does not prevent the President from independently nominating a candidate for the position. Such a duty of the head of state can be enshrined in Federal law“On the President of the Russian Federation”, the adoption of which has long been proposed in science and an analogue of which exists in foreign countries (Kazakhstan, Belarus).

In many foreign countries, there is an institution of oath for members of the Government and, first of all, its head, which is fully justified by the high appointment of these officials. The question of to whom the prime minister takes the oath when taking office is predetermined by the form of government: in a parliamentary republic, the head of government takes the oath before parliament, in a presidential and semi-presidential republic, most often before the head of state. "So, in Bulgaria, members of the Council of Ministers take an oath before People's Assembly(Article 109 of the Constitution); in Germany, upon taking office, the Federal Chancellor and federal ministers take an oath before the Bundestag (Article 64 of the Constitution); in Poland, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, vice-chairmen and ministers take an oath before the President (Article 151 of the Constitution)1.

This practice deserves attention. The oath of the newly elected Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation before the President of the Russian Federation would increase the publicity and responsibility of this position, the political status of the head of the Government as the head of the highest executive body. The ceremony of taking the oath before the President of the Russian Federation could be regulated by the Federal Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation”.

The Federal Code of Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation” names the grounds for early termination of the powers of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is dismissed from office by the President of the Russian Federation in two cases: 1.

According to the resignation of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation; 2.

If it is impossible for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation to fulfill his powers (Article 7).

The law does not specify the second basis, but its wording suggests that we're talking about about circumstances preventing the head of the Government from fulfilling his powers, for example, such as a persistent health disorder. This basis, in our opinion, cannot be a service discrepancy, since the Chairman of the Government is not in the service of the head of state.

From the analysis of the above grounds, we can conclude that the President of the Russian Federation is deprived of the right to arbitrarily dismiss the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, which is perhaps the most compelling evidence of the constitutional independence of the head of the Russian Government.

The above does not at all mean that it is impossible for the President of the Russian Federation to achieve dismissal from the post of the head of the Government; he can, for example, resort to the resignation of the Government as a whole, which he declares completely arbitrarily, which, naturally, entails the resignation of the head of the Government. However, formally this will already be the responsibility of the Government as a public authority, and not the head of the Government as an official. However, the President of the Russian Federation cannot initiate the resignation of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, which, by force of law, occurs only at the request of the Chairman of the Government.

The status of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is also emphasized by the duty of the head of state to notify the chambers of the Federal Assembly about the decision made. According to Article 7 of the Federal Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation”

The President of the Russian Federation notifies the Federation Council and the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation about the dismissal of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation on the day the decision is made.

To others important indicator An independent and significant state position of the Chairman of the Government is a legislative provision according to which the dismissal of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation simultaneously entails the resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation (Article 7 of the Federal Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation”). As rightly noted in the literature, “the dependence of the resignation of the entire composition of the Government of the Russian Federation on the early dismissal of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is explained by his status. Namely, in accordance with Article 1213 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, he is entrusted with the duty and responsibility for organizing the work of the Government and determining the main directions of its activities70.

In addition to individual grounds for termination of the powers of the head. Government of the Russian Federation, his vacancy is also related to the general grounds for termination of powers of the Government of the Russian Federation. As is known, the government does not have a fixed legislature; its duration is determined by the term of presidential or parliamentary powers, depending on the form of government. In countries with parliamentary rule, the government resigns its powers after parliamentary elections, in presidential and mixed republics - before the newly elected president. In some semi-presidential countries, the government's legislature is tied to both the parliamentary and presidential terms. Thus, in the Republic of Lithuania, the Government resigns its powers to the President after the elections of the Seimas or in the event of the election of the President of the Republic (Article 92 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).

The Constitution of the Russian Federation, following the traditions of presidential-parliamentary government, establishes that the Government of the Russian Federation resigns its powers to the newly elected President (Article 116 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). The resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation before the newly elected President of the Russian Federation can be considered a measure of the so-called. positive legal responsibility of the Government to the head of state, which many authors highlight along with negative (retrospective) responsibility and which consists in the responsible performance of their functions and duties by the subjects of responsibility. As noted by M.I. Matuzov, “we are not talking about responsibility for certain violations, which most often come down to punishment, but about responsibility as a certain internal state of the individual, his attitude towards the assigned work, society, the state, the team, and his behavior (in the present and future) , a sense of self-discipline, consciousness. Positive responsibility is a measure of demandingness towards oneself and others, a deep understanding of the interests of the state and society, and the conscientious and active fulfillment of one's civic duty. It follows from the real socio-legal status of the subject and can be called status responsibility”71.

Thus, the general basis for termination of the powers of the Chairman of the Government is the resignation by the Government of its powers to the newly elected President, who in practice is also the person elected as head of state for a second consecutive term.

According to the Federal Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation”, the decision on the resignation by the Government of the Russian Federation of its powers is formalized by order of the Government of the Russian Federation on the day the President of the Russian Federation takes office (Article 35). In our opinion, such a formulation formally contradicts the constitutional one, which in the precise sense requires the resignation of government powers to the elected, and not the President who has taken office. Article 35 of the Federal Law on the Government of the Russian Federation should therefore be adjusted in such a way that the decision on the resignation by the Government of the Russian Federation of its powers is formalized by decree

Government of the Russian Federation on the day of election of the President of the Russian Federation, which is established by a decision of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation. Thus, the latter decided to consider V.V. Putin elected to the post of President of the Russian Federation. April 5, 2000 L The implementation of this proposal will not cause a shutdown of government activities: current president In this case, the Russian Federation, with reference to Part 5 of Article 117 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, may instruct the Government to continue to act until the formation of a new Government of the Russian Federation.

Another reason for termination. The powers of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation is the resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation by decision of the President of the Russian Federation. According to Part 2 of Article 117 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation may decide to resign the Government of the Russian Federation. The President makes the decision to dismiss the Federal Government as in my own way initiative, and in connection with the lack of confidence expressed in the Government by the State Duma or the refusal of the State Duma to trust the Government.

The government itself can submit resignation, which is accepted or rejected by the President of the Russian Federation (Part 1 of Article 117 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation), which, unlike the previous basis, is considered an example of the voluntary resignation by the Government of the Russian Federation of its powers. “Resignation is a voluntary or forced termination of the execution of the powers of a government official.” body or persons whose powers are related to state activities, entailing the loss of powers by the subjects of resignation”72.

Such a government resignation, however, can only be called voluntary; the termination of the Government’s execution of its powers here is determined by the position of the President, who has the right to reject the government resignation. It remains unclear, however, what the legal consequences of the Government terminating the exercise of its powers if the President of Russia rejects his resignation. Let us note that during the period of the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation never exercised the right to resign. The right of the Government of the Russian Federation to resign is an important indicator of its independence before the head of state; the cabinet, which is entirely dependent on the head of state, as foreign practice shows, is deprived of the right to resign.

In the event of resignation or resignation, the Government of the Russian Federation, according to the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, continues to act until the formation of a new Government of the Russian Federation (Part 5 of Article 117).

The Federal Law on the Government of the Russian Federation regulates the institution of the acting Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. In the absence of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, his duties are performed by one of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in accordance with the written distribution of responsibilities.

In case of dismissal from the post of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, the President of the Russian Federation has the right, before the appointment of a new Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, to entrust the performance of the duties of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation to one of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation for a period of up to two months (Article 8 of the Federal Law).

The law, therefore, distinguishes between cases of temporary absence of the head of the Government, not related to the vacancy of his position, and the absence of the Chairman of the Government due to his dismissal from his position by the President, which is quite natural. It seems, however, that the period of temporary performance of duties of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation on behalf of the head of state, which can reach two months, is excessive. This contradicts the meaning of the Constitution, which presupposes the immediate formation of the post of Chairman of the Government, without which the Government is incomplete, requiring that a proposal for the candidacy of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation be submitted to the State Duma no later than two weeks after the newly elected President of the Russian Federation takes office or after the resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation or within a week from the day the State Duma rejected the candidacy. In view of this, we propose to reduce in the Federal Law on the Government of the Russian Federation the term for exercising the powers of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, which, apparently, cannot exceed two weeks.

The law does not further determine the deadline for the President of the Russian Federation to submit to the State Duma the candidacy of a new Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation upon his dismissal of the previous one. The absence of a fixed term in practice can lead to delays in the appointment of the head of the Government to the post and the formation of a new Government, which can disrupt the synchronicity of government activities,

arising from the separation of powers. Guided by the general constitutional deadlines for submitting to the State Duma a candidacy for the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, it can be allowed that the proposal for the candidacy of I (Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation) be submitted to the State Duma for consideration within a week after the end of the term of office of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The question arises: does the acting Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation become the acting President of the Russian Federation in cases where the head of state is unable to fulfill his duties? The existing constitutional and legislative wording does not provide a clear answer to this question, which has an obvious practical significance. On the one hand, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the acting President of the Russian Federation can only be the Chairman of the Government, which the one performing his duties, of course, is not; on the other hand, the impossibility of the President of the Russian Federation fulfilling his duties while simultaneously being absent from the post of the head of the Government will lead to a situation of anarchy that is extremely undesirable . It seems to us that the powers of the President of the Russian Federation in the absence of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in this situation should pass to the acting one, which, however, requires legislative recording.

It should be noted that the legislative procedure for replacing the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation has been repeatedly violated in practice. So, President B.N. Yeltsin by Decree of March 23, 1998 N? 28173 announced the resignation of the Government of the Russian Federation and at the same time assumed the duties of Chairman of the Government, although the legislation does not allow such a combination of positions. On August 23, 1998, the President announced the resignation of the Government, assigning the temporary performance of the duties of Chairman of the Government to B.C. Chernomyrdin, who at that time was not a member of the federal government, which violated the legislative requirement according to which the President of the Russian Federation can entrust the duties of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation to only one of his deputies. S.V. Kiriyenko was appointed Acting Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in 1998, although at the time of his appointment he was the Minister of Fuel and Energy, who did not have the status of Deputy Prime Minister.

Analyzing the legislature of the head of the Government of the Russian Federation and the grounds for its early termination, one should recognize the insufficiency of such grounds. Due to the lack of official immunity among members of the Federal Government, the grounds for termination of the powers of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, in our opinion, should be the recognition of him by the court as incompetent or partially capable, as well as the entry into force of a court conviction against him. These grounds may seem hypothetical, but their absence still creates a legal gap, which in relation to the head of the federal

Governments are unacceptable. These grounds could appear in the Federal Law “On the Government of the Russian Federation”.

The reason for the early termination of the powers of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation should also be his death - a reason that appears in many foreign constitutions. Since the Government is a joint body of state power, it should be noted that with the death of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, the powers of the Government of the Russian Federation as a whole cease.

According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the consent of the State Duma is required only for the appointment of the head of the Government by the President; as for the appointment of other members of the Government, it is carried out by the head of state without the formal participation of the lower house of parliament, which, however, at one time protested against this. Thus, on July 16, 1998, the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation adopted the Resolution “On personnel policy in the Government of the Russian Federation"1, in which she proposed to the President of the Russian Federation to prepare and submit to the State Duma bills on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and on introducing amendments and additions to the Federal Constitutional Law "On the Government of the Russian Federation", providing for the procedure for appointment to office and dismissal from office The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, his deputies and federal ministers only with the consent of the State Duma.

This position, however, contradicts the nature of a semi-presidential republic, in which the government as a whole is formed by the president, which ensures his political leadership in the state, implementing the laws of this form of government. The implementation of such a proposal will inevitably transform Russia from a presidential-parliamentary into a parliamentary republic, which implies a radical revision of the entire constitutional organization of the state, for which the Russian Federation, in our opinion, is not yet ready.

Mixed, semi-presidential rule at the same time does not exclude parliamentary participation in the formation of the government, which can be strengthened within the framework of the current Constitution of Russia. This possibility was not excluded, for example, by the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin, who at the same time outlined problems along this path. In his annual message to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in 1999, he noted: “But it is not even clear yet that in this case considered a parliamentary majority. Is there a need for a special constitutional norm establishing the provision of such a government? Will the leader of the party that wins the elections apply for the role of Chairman of the Government? And finally, what is the legal and political measure of parliament’s responsibility for the activities of the government it has formed, and what mechanisms may be there for this. The ambiguity and novelty of these issues for Russia, which cannot be the subject of a behind-the-scenes decision, require the broadest discussion, including taking into account the experience of the current cabinet, which has a good base of support in the State Duma.”74.

With the appointment of V.V. as Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Putin has outlined a constructive solution to this problem. V.V. Putin after taking office as President of Russia D.A. Medvedev headed the United Russia party, whose parliamentary faction is the ruling one, possessing a constitutional majority in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Under these conditions, we can talk about the parliamentary principles of forming the Government of the Russian Federation, which at the same time are not equivalent to the parliamentary method of forming the Government, since the President retains the freedom to appoint ministers. In order for the prime minister to become a figure relatively independent from the president, he must rely on parliamentary support, as is the case in

France is the standard of semi-presidential government. In his Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in 2003, President V.V. Putin allowed the possibility of forming a professional, effective government “based on a parliamentary majority”1.

The chairmanship of the head of the Government in the United Russia party, which dominates the lower house of the Russian parliament, gives the Government of the Russian Federation a party flavor, binds it with a certain party line, the spokesman of which the Chairman of the Government inevitably becomes. This situation strengthens the state position of the head of the Government before the President of the country, strengthens his constitutional status and increases his functional capabilities. It is obvious that the President will have to take into account in his policies the position of the Prime Minister, who heads the most impressive political force in the country. By building relations with the President of Russia, the Chairman of the Government will be able, in controversial cases, to appeal to the Duma majority, whose support is guaranteed to him by the party leadership.