Russia is an Eurasian country located on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Sea of Japan, sharing a border with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Japan, United States of America. Russia is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world, and extends across eleven time zones. The population of this country is approx 14,60,28,000 with 1,70,98,246 square kilometers area. Ethnically 71% Russian. Religiously 61% follow the Christian Russian Orthodox Church, 21% do not believe in any religion, 9% are Muslim.
The Russian Constitution is quite simple. But the most interesting provision is Article 124, according to which the expenses of the courts will be met from the national budget. If there were such a provision, the court's activities would be conducted through the fines that the courts impose in the context of various verdicts, then justice would never be ensured. Judges would impose large fines at will to increase their own income.
This is a positive aspect. Now let's discuss the negative aspects.
Instead of national laws being equally applicable everywhere, some specific regions have been granted the right to self-governance.
Admirable Articles of Russia's Constitution
Article 7
● The Russian Federation shall be a social state whose policy is aimed at creating conditions ensuring a worthy life and a free development of Man.
● In the Russian Federation the labour and health of people shall be protected, a guaranteed minimum wage shall be established, State support shall be provided for the family, maternity, fatherhood and childhood, to the disabled and to elderly citizens, the system of social services shall be developed and State pensions, allowances and other social security guarantees shall be established.
Article 14
● The Russian Federation shall be a secular state. No religion may be established as the State religion or as obligatory.
● Religious associations shall be separate from the State and shall be equal before the law.
Article 15 (Part of it)
● The Constitution of the Russian Federation shall have supreme legal force, direct effect and shall be applicable on the entire territory of the Russian Federation. Laws and other legal acts, which are adopted in the Russian Federation, must not contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation.
Article 19
● All persons shall be equal before the law and the court.
● The State guarantees the equality of human and civil rights and freedoms regardless of sex, race, nationality, language, origin, material and official status, place of residence, attitude to religion, convictions, membership of public associations, or of other circumstances. All forms of limitations of human rights on social, racial, national, language or religious grounds shall be prohibited.
● Men and women shall enjoy equal rights and freedoms and equal opportunities to exercise them.
Article 21
● Human dignity shall be protected by the State. Nothing may serve as a basis for its derogation.
● Nobody should be subjected to torture, violence, or other severe or humiliating treatment or punishment. Nobody may be subjected to medical, scientific or other experiments without voluntary consent.
Article 22
● Everyone shall have the right to freedom and personal inviolability.
● Arrest, detention and keeping in custody shall be permissible only under a court order. A person may not be detained for more than 48 hours without a court order.
Article 23
● Everyone shall have the right to the inviolability of his (her) private life, personal and family privacy, and protection of his (her) honour and good name.
● Everyone shall have the right to privacy of correspondence, of telephone conversations and of postal, telegraph and other communications. This right may be limited only on the basis of a court order.
Article 24
● Collecting, keeping, using and disseminating information about the private life of a person shall not be permitted without his (her) consent.
● State government bodies and local self-government bodies and their officials shall be obliged to provide everyone with access to documents and materials directly affecting his (her) rights and freedoms, unless otherwise envisaged by law.
Article 29
● Everyone shall be guaranteed freedom of thought and speech.
● Propaganda or agitation, which arouses social, racial, national or religious hatred and hostility shall be prohibited. Propaganda of social, racial, national, religious or linguistic supremacy shall also be prohibited.
● Nobody shall be forced to express his thoughts and convictions or to deny them.
● Everyone shall have the right freely to seek, receive, transmit, produce and disseminate information by any legal means. The list of types of information, which constitute State secrets, shall be determined by federal law.
● The freedom of the mass media shall be guaranteed. Censorship shall be prohibited.
Article 31
Citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right to assemble peacefully, without weapons, hold rallies, mass meetings and demonstrations, marches and pickets.
Article 34
● Everyone shall have the right to use freely his (her) abilities and property for entrepreneurial and other economic activity not prohibited by law.
● Economic activity aimed at monopolization and unfair competition shall not be permitted.
Article 38
● Maternity, childhood and family shall be protected by the State.
● Care for children and their upbringing shall be the equal right and duty of parents.
● Able-bodied children over 18 years of age must take care of disabled parents.
Article 39
● Everyone shall be guaranteed social security for old age, in case of illness, disability and loss of the breadwinner, for the bringing up of children and in other cases specified by law.
● State pensions and social benefits shall be established by law.
● Voluntary social insurance, the creation of additional forms of social security and charity shall be encouraged.
Article 40
● Everyone shall have the right to a home. Nobody may be arbitrarily deprived of his (her) home.
● State government bodies and local self-government bodies shall promote housing construction and create conditions for exercising the right to a home.
● Low-income citizens and other citizens mentioned in law who are in need of a home may receive it either free of charge or for an affordable payment from State, municipal and other housing funds according to the norms established by law.
Article 43
● Everyone shall have the right to education.
● General access and free pre-school, secondary and secondary vocational education in State and municipal educational institutions and at enterprises shall be guaranteed.
● Everyone shall have the right to receive on a competitive basis free higher education in State and municipal educational institutions and at enterprises.
● Basic general education shall be compulsory. Parents or guardians shall ensure that children receive a basic general education.
● The Russian Federation shall establish federal State educational standards and shall support various forms of education and self-education.
Article 44
● Everyone shall be guaranteed the freedom of literary, artistic, scientific, technical and other types of creative activity and teaching. Intellectual property shall be protected by law.
● Everyone shall have the right to participate in cultural life and use cultural establishments, and the right of access to cultural valuables.
● Everyone shall be obliged to care for the preservation of the cultural and historical heritage, and to protect monuments of history and culture.
Article 49
● Any person accused of committing a crime shall be considered innocent until his (her) guilt is proven in accordance with the procedure stipulated by federal law and is confirmed by a court sentence which has entered into legal force.
● The accused shall not be obliged to prove his (her) innocence.
● Irremovable doubts about the guilt of a person shall be interpreted in favour of the accused.
Article 53
Everyone shall have the right to State compensation for damage caused by unlawful actions (inaction) of State government bodies and their officials.
Article 98
● Members of the Council of Federation and deputies of the State Duma shall enjoy immunity during the whole term of their office. They may not be detained, arrested or searched, except in the event of detention at the scene of a crime. They may not be subjected to personal searches, except in instances where this is provided for by federal law in order to ensure the safety of other people.
● The issue of the removal of immunity shall be resolved by an appropriate chamber of the Federal Assembly upon submission of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation.
Article 124
Courts shall be financed only from the federal budget and should ensure the possibility of the complete and independent administration of justice according to the requirements of federal law.
Facts of Russia's Constitution
Article 5 (Part of it)
● The Russian Federation shall consist of republics, krays, oblasts, cities of federal significance, an autonomous oblast and autonomous okrugs, which shall have equal rights as constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
● A republic (state) shall have its own constitution and legislation. A kray, oblast, city of federal significance, autonomous oblast and autonomous okrug shall have its own charter and legislation.
Article 9
● Land and other natural resources shall be utilized and protected in the Russian Federation as the basis of the life and activity of the peoples living on the territories concerned.
● Land and other natural resources may be subject to private, State, municipal and other forms of ownership.
Article 65
● The Russian Federation shall be composed of the following constituent entities of the Russian Federation:
Republic of Adygeya (Adygeya), Republic of Altai,
Republic of Bashkortostan, Republic of Buryatia, Republic of Crimea,
Republic of Daghestan, Republic of Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkarian
Republic, Republic of Kalmykia, Karachayevo-Cherkessian Republic,
Republic of Karelia, Komi Republic, Republic of Marij El, Republic of
Mordovia, Republic of Sakha(Yakutia), Republic of North Osetia - Alania,
Republic of Tatarstan (Tatarstan), Republic of Tuva, Udmurtian
Republic, Republic of Khakasia, Chechen Republic, Chuvashi Republic -
Chuvashia;
Altai kray, Krasnodar kray, Krasnoyarsk kray, Perm kray, Primorie kray, Stavropol kray, Khabarovsk kray;
Amur
oblast, Arkhangelsk oblast, Astrakhan oblast, Belgorod oblast, Bryansk
oblast, Vladimir oblast, Volgograd oblast, Vologda oblast, Voronezh
oblast, Ivanovo oblast, Irkutsk oblast, Kaliningrad oblast, Kaluga
oblast, Kamchatka oblast, Kemerovo oblast, Kirov oblast, Kostroma
oblast, Kurgan oblast, Kursk oblast, Leningrad oblast, Lipets oblast,
Magadan oblast, Moscow oblast, Murmansk oblast, Nizhni Novgorod oblast,
Novgorod oblast, Novosibirsk oblast, Omsk oblast, Orenburg oblast, Oryol
oblast, Penza oblast, Pskov oblast, Rostov oblast, Ryazan oblast,
Samara oblast, Saratov oblast, Sakhalin oblast, Sverdlovsk oblast,
Smolensk oblast, Tambov oblast, Tver oblast, Tomsk oblast, Tula oblast,
Tyumen oblast, Ulyanovsk oblast, Chelyabinsk oblast, Chita oblast,
Yaroslavl oblast;
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol - cities of federal significance;
the Jewish autonomous oblast;
Nenets autonomous okrug, Khanty-Mansijsk autonomous okrug - Yugra, Chukotka autonomous okrug, Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrug.
● Admission into the Russian Federation and creation of a new constituent entity shall take place in accordance with the procedure established by federal constitutional law.
Article 69
The Russian Federation shall guarantee the rights
of indigenous small peoples in accordance with the universally
recognized principles and norms of international law and international
treaties of the Russian Federation.
