President of Russia

• 1. Introduction

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  The President of Russia holds the highest office in the country, serving simultaneously as executive head of state, chair of the Federal State Council, and supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. On the 12th of June 1991, Boris Yeltsin won a popular vote with 57% of the vote, becoming the first person ever directly elected to lead Russia. That single election carried enormous weight: Yeltsin was not only the first popularly elected Russian president but also the first non-Communist Party member to win a major Soviet political role. What sort of office did he inherit? Where did it come from? And how has it changed in the decades since?

• 2. A False Start in 1918

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  The All-Russian Constituent Assembly, elected in 1917, drew up plans for a democratic presidential republic even before the Bolsheviks consolidated power. In January 1918 it proclaimed the Russian Democratic Federal Republic and envisioned a head of state elected to a one-year term by a majority parliamentary vote. The Bolsheviks dissolved the assembly before a single person could ever be chosen for the role. That vision of an elected Russian head of state, interrupted almost the moment it was articulated, would not resurface for more than seven decades. When the post finally did materialise, it came through a referendum in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, where 71% of voters backed creating a directly elected presidency.

• 3. The Yeltsin Years

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  Boris Yeltsin rose to the chairmanship of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet in May 1990, making him the republic's head of state at a moment when the Soviet Union was already fracturing. His decisive role in the dissolution of that union transformed the RSFSR into the Russian Federation, but the transition brought instability rather than stability. Violence broke out in Moscow during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, forcing a reckoning with the country's governing arrangements. A new constitution took effect that year and has remained in force ever since. By the time Yeltsin left office, his approval rating had fallen to roughly two percent by some estimates, a collapse rooted in the widespread corruption, economic breakdown, and political turmoil that defined his era.

• 4. Putin's Economic Record

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  Vladimir Putin entered the presidency against a backdrop of crisis and presided over a substantial economic recovery during his first eight years in office. Russia's GDP increased sixfold in nominal terms, or 72% measured by purchasing power parity. Poverty was cut by more than half. Average monthly salaries climbed from $80 to $640, a rise of 150% in real terms. That performance earned him consistently high approval ratings among Russian voters through his presidential terms and into his subsequent stint as prime minister. At the same time, foreign governments, human rights organisations, and domestic opponents raised persistent concerns about his conduct in Chechnya and Dagestan, his record on civil liberties, and his relationships with the Russian businessmen known as oligarchs. The Kremlin characterised those criticisms as anti-Russian propaganda driven by western opponents and exiled oligarchs.

• 5. The 2020 Constitutional Reset

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  Dmitry Medvedev was appointed first deputy prime minister on the 14th of November 2005. Having served as Putin's chief of staff and as chairman of Gazprom's board since 2000, he was endorsed as a presidential candidate by the party United Russia on the 10th of December 2007 and officially confirmed on the 17th of December 2007. He became president, chose Putin as his prime minister, and then stepped aside for Putin in 2012. That choreography set the stage for a more permanent rearrangement. Presidential terms had already been extended from four to six years during Medvedev's administration in 2008. Then, in 2020, constitutional amendments reset the term count for both Putin and Medvedev, allowing either to serve two full additional terms regardless of time already served. The residency requirement for presidential candidates was simultaneously tightened from 10 years to 25 years, and a new rule barred anyone who had ever held foreign citizenship from running.

• 6. The Insignia and Ceremony

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  At each inauguration, which has been held on the 7th of May since 2000, the incoming president takes a formal oath pledging to respect the rights and freedoms of citizens, protect the constitution, and serve the people faithfully. Three objects are then handed over to mark the transfer of authority. The first is a chain of office whose central emblem bears the red cross of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", with the reverse reading "Benefit, Honor and Glory" in a circle; the chain contains 17 links in total, nine featuring the Russian coat of arms and eight bearing a rosette with the same motto. The second is the presidential standard, a square version of the Russian flag with the coat of arms at its centre and golden fringe at its edges; a 2:3 ratio version is used when the president is at sea. The third is a special copy of the Russian Constitution with a hard red cover, gold lettering, and the coat of arms rendered in silver, kept in the Presidential Library between inaugurations. These insignia and the procedures governing them were first established by presidential decree 1138, issued on the 5th of August 1996.

• 7. Life After the Presidency

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  On the 31st of December 1999, the day Boris Yeltsin resigned, he signed a decree guaranteeing protections for former presidents and their families. A federal law formalising those guarantees was adopted by the 25th of January 2001. Under its terms, a former president receives a monthly pension set at 75% of the current presidential salary, for life. Their family members, if the president dies, receive an allowance equal to six times the minimum old-age pension. Former presidents, their spouses, and their children up to age 16 all receive Federal Protective Service coverage until the president's death; a spouse who remarries or divorces loses that protection. The 2020 amendments added lifetime immunity from criminal and administrative liability for acts committed in office, immunity that can only be lifted through the same process as impeachment, and granted former presidents the right to become senators for life. The first presidential heritage centre, dedicated to Boris Yeltsin, opened in 2015 in Yekaterinburg; similar centres for Putin and Medvedev are planned.