Federal Assembly (Russia)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Federal Assembly of Russia sits at the legal center of the world's largest country by landmass, yet since the 2003 elections analysts and observers have consistently called it a rubber stamp institution. That label raises a question worth examining: what exactly does this bicameral parliament do, and why does the gap between its formal powers and its practical authority matter so much to understanding how Russia actually governs itself?

  The Assembly was born from a constitutional rupture. When the Constitution of the Russian Federation was ratified in 1993, it abolished the former Supreme Soviet and replaced it with a two-chamber body: the Federation Council as the upper house and the State Duma as the lower. Both chambers are housed in Moscow, and together they form the only body through which any piece of legislation can become law in Russia.

  What lies ahead in this documentary is the structure of that power, the precise division of duties between the two houses, the intricate rules that govern how laws travel from proposal to signature, and the story of a long-delayed building project that reveals just how tangled even administrative decisions can become inside this institution.

• 2. Two Chambers, Divided Duties

  ›

  The Chairman of the Federation Council holds the third most important position in Russia, behind only the President and the Prime Minister. That ranking is not ceremonial. If both the President and the Prime Minister are simultaneously incapacitated, the Speaker of the Federation Council becomes Acting President of Russia.

  The Federation Council's formal jurisdiction is broad and consequential. It holds the power to approve changes in borders between federal subjects of Russia, to approve presidential decrees imposing martial law or a state of emergency, and to decide whether the Armed Forces of Russia may operate outside Russian territory. It also appoints and dismisses the Prosecutor General of Russia, appoints the judges of the higher courts, and handles the appointment and dismissal of the Deputy Chairman and half of the auditors of the Accounts Chamber.

  The State Duma operates on a different set of responsibilities. Its jurisdiction covers giving consent to the appointment of the Prime Minister, deciding questions of confidence in the Government, and appointing and dismissing the Governor of the Central Bank. The Duma also appoints and dismisses the Chairman and half of the auditors of the Accounts Chamber, appoints and dismisses the Commissioner for Human Rights, and holds the power to proclaim amnesty. Uniquely, the Duma is the chamber that advances charges against the President when impeachment proceedings begin.

  These divided portfolios mean the two chambers rarely work on the same problem at the same time, which is why the State Duma and the Federation Council usually meet separately. Joint sessions are convened for only three occasions: when the President delivers the annual address to the Federal Assembly, when the Constitutional Court delivers an address, and when the leaders of foreign states come to speak.

• 3. How a Law Is Born

  ›

  All bills in Russia, even those proposed by the Federation Council itself, must first be considered by the State Duma. This single rule shapes the entire relationship between the two chambers. The lower house holds the initiative on legislation, and the upper house responds to it.

  When a bill passes the State Duma by a majority of its full membership, it moves to the Federation Council, which then has fourteen days to place the bill on its calendar. The Federation Council cannot amend a bill that comes from the Duma; it can only approve or reject the text as written.

  Rejection does not kill a bill outright. When the Federation Council rejects legislation passed by the State Duma, the two chambers must form a conciliation commission to work out a compromise version. If that commission cannot reach agreement, or if the Duma decides to push its original version through anyway, the Federation Council's veto can still be overridden. That override requires two thirds of the Duma's constitutional composition to vote in favor. The threshold is deliberately high, giving the upper house meaningful leverage even without the power to write its own amendments.

  This structure means legislative momentum runs almost entirely in one direction. Bills originate or are first judged in the Duma, the Duma can ultimately override the Council, and the Council's role is closer to review and delay than to equal co-authorship of the law.

• 4. The Parliamentary Centre That Almost Was

  ›

  In the mid-2000s, planners first floated the idea of combining the State Duma and the Federation Council into a single new parliamentary complex. By 2012, President Dmitry Medvedev had formally endorsed the project. The stated reasons were practical: parliament members' offices were cramped, spread across ten separate locations in Moscow, and the government wanted to move the bodies away from the city center to ease traffic congestion.

  Finding a suitable location proved to be an exercise in indecision. Planners examined Kutuzovsky Avenue, Frunzenskaya Embankment, Moscow City, Tushino airfield, Krasnaya Presnya Street, Moskvoretskaya Embankment, Muzeon Park of Arts, and the Sofia Embankment. In September 2014, the Mnyovniki floodplain was selected. Ecologists protested the choice.

  An architectural competition was held to choose a design. Parliamentarians could not agree on the aesthetic decisions between competing entries. The contest was run a second time, and the disagreements were still not resolved.

  Financing proved equally contentious. The original plan called for private investors to fund the project in exchange for ownership of the existing State Duma and Federation Council buildings, plus permits to demolish those structures and replace them with hotels or other private developments. Architectural critic Grigory Revzin objected. He argued that the State Duma occupies the former Council of Labor and Defense building, designed by Arkady Langman and completed in 1935, which qualifies it as an architectural monument protected by the state and therefore cannot be demolished.

  Construction was originally scheduled to begin in 2020. In 2016, the project was postponed to an unspecified date because of the economic situation and unresolved disagreements over what the center should look like. The Langman-designed building from 1935, still standing, remains the seat of the lower house.