The Federal Structure of Russia

The Federal Structure

Krays (9)

Oblasts (46)

Republics (22)

The Russian Federation

The cities of federal significance (3)

The Jewish autonomous oblast

Autonomous Okrugs (4)

• The territory of the Russian Federation = its constituent entities + inland waters and territorial sea and the air space over them.
• State language for the whole territory is the Russian language.

!! Republics shall have right to establish their own State language and use it together with the language of the RF.

The Russian Federation shall guarantee:

• all of its people the right to preserve their native language and to create conditions for its study and development

• the rights of indigenous small peoples in accordance with the universally recognized principals and norms of international norms and treaties of the RF.

The Russian Federation shall have jurisdiction over:

a) the adoption and amending of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws, control over compliance therewith;

b) the federative structure and the territory of the Russian Federation;

c) regulation and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms; citizenship in the Russian Federation, regulation and protection of the rights of national minorities;

d) establishment of the system of federal legislative, executive and judicial bodies, the procedure for their organisation and activities, the formation of federal State government bodies;

e) federal State property and administration thereof;

f) establishment of the basic principles of federal policy and federal programmes in the sphere of State, economic, ecological, social, cultural and national development of the Russian Federation;

g) establishment of the basic legal principles for the unified market; financial, currency, credit and customs regulation; money emission; the basic principles of pricing policy, federal economic services, including federal banks;

h) the federal budget, federal taxes and levies, federal funds of regional development;

i) federal power-engineering systems, nuclear power, fissile materials, federal transport, railways, information and communication, activities in space;

j) foreign policy and international relations of the Russian Federation, international treaties of the Russian Federation, issues of war and peace;

k) foreign economic relations of the Russian Federation;

l) defence and security; military production; determination of the procedure for selling and purchasing weapons, ammunition, military equipment and other military hardware; production of poisonous substances, narcotic substances and the procedure for their use;

m) determination of the status and protection of the State border, territorial sea, air space, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf of the Russian Federation;

n) the judicial system, public prosecution, criminal, criminal-procedural and criminal-executive legislation, amnesty and remission, civil, civil-procedural and arbitration-procedural legislation, legal regulation of intellectual property;

o)  federal law of conflict of laws;

p) meteorological service, standards, metric and time systems, geodesy and cartography, names of geographical units, official statistics and accounting;

q) State awards and honorary titles of the Russian Federation;

r) federal State service.

The following shall be within the joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and constituent entities of the Russian Federation:

a) measures to ensure the correspondence of constitutions and laws of republics, the charters, laws and other normative legal acts of krays, oblasts, cities of federal significance, autonomous oblast and autonomous okrugs to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws;

b) protection of human and civil rights and freedoms, protection of the rights of national minorities, ensuring lawfulness, law and order, public security; border zone regimes;

c) issues of the possession, utilisation and management of land and of subsurface, water and other natural resources;

d) demarcation of State property;

e) use of natural resources, protection of the environment and provisions for ecological safety; specially protected natural territories, protection of historical and cultural monuments;

f) general issues of upbringing, education, science, culture, physical education and sport;

j) coordination of health care issues; protection of the family, maternity, fatherhood and childhood, social protection, including social security;

h) carrying out measures against catastrophes, natural disasters, epidemics and rectification of their consequences;

i) establishment of common principles of taxation and levies in the Russian Federation;

j) administrative, administrative-procedural, labour, family, housing, land, water and forest legislation; legislation on subsurface resources and on environmental protection;

k) personnel of judicial and law enforcement bodies; lawyers, notaries;

l) protection of the traditional habitat and the traditional way of life of small ethnic communities;

m) establishment of general principles of the organisation of the system of State government and local self-government bodies;

n) coordination of international and foreign economic relations of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, observance of international agreements of the Russian Federation.

• In the territory of the RF no custom borders, duties, levies or any other barrier to the free flow of goods, services and financial resources.

• The monetary unit of the RF shall be the rouble.

• The principal function of the Central Bank of the RF is protecting and ensuring the stability of the rouble.

• The system of taxes shall be determined by the federal law.

On issues under the joint jurisdiction of the RF and its Subject

On issues under the jurisdiction of the RF

Federal laws + laws and other normative legal acts of the Subjects in accordance with those federal laws

Federal constitutional laws and federal laws

!!! Federal laws may not conflict with federal constitutional laws

Federal executive government bodies:

• in order to exercise their powers, establish their own territorial bodies and appoint appropriate officials.
• by agreement with executive government bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, may delegate some of their powers to the latter provided that this does not conflict with the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws.

Executive government bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation:

• by agreement with federal executive government bodies, may delegate some of their powers to the latter.

The President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation shall provide for the implementation of the powers of federal State power on the entire territory of the Russian Federation in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The Russian Federation may participate in interstate associations and transfer some of its powers to those associations in accordance with international treaties provided that this does not entail restrictions on human and civil rights and freedoms and does not conflict with the basic principles of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation.