Russian and East European studies was one of my two majors at the University of Pennsylvania. Graduating with honors, I studied many aspects of Russia, including its history, culture, and politics. I learned the Russian language. I lived in Moscow in 2018. I also studied the Russian constitution. While it is a little-known fact, or at least little discussed, that the Russian Federation has a constitution, it is even lesser known that there are guidelines for a president’s impeachment. Yes, Russian President Vladimir Putin could, theoretically, be impeached.
While still often stereotyped as a communist, authoritarian dictatorship, in reality, at least on paper, Russia is a federal semi-presidential constitutional republic. As such, the country is beholden to the laws stipulated in its constitution (a constitution that the United States and many Western “experts” had a role in drafting in 1993). And Chapter 4 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation discusses the role, powers, and limitations of the President of the Russian Federation — including impeachment.
An important caveat to all of this is that the Constitution of the Russian Federation grants the president enormous powers, known as super-presidentialism. These powers are explained in Chapter 4, Article 80. They specify that the president is the “head of the State” and “guarantor of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen.” Furthermore, there are also minimal, if any, checks and balances over Russia’s executive branch. These powers have been a staple of the constitution since its ratification in 1993. But, despite this vast authority, there are provisions for the president to be impeached. Chapter 4, Articles 92 and 93 detail this process.
Article 92 provides the scenarios in which the president loses his powers, including resignation, health issues, and impeachment. They also stipulate that should any of these instances occur, a new presidential election must happen no later than three months “since the termination of the powers short of the term.”
Article 93 provides the guidelines for the impeachment process. In order for Putin to be impeached, there would have to be charges of “high treason or another grave crime.” Then charges would be brought by the country’s legislative branch, the State Duma. Next, these charges would have to be confirmed and concluded by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation “on the presence of the elements of crime in the actions” of the president. Then, the country’s Constitution Court would have to confirm and conclude “that the rules of the advancing charges were observed.”
The Council of the Federation then makes the decision whether to impeach the president. It has three months to do so, or the “charges against the President shall be regarded as rejected.”
Now, obviously, with Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, a crime is undoubtedly documented that should warrant impeachment proceedings. However, will the Duma actually bring any charges against Putin? Probably not. So, impeachment is unlikely to happen. However, such a scenario might not be as far off as previously thought.
Consider that there have been protests in Russia against Putin’s invasion. Thousands took to the streets to have their voices heard. Incidentally, one of those voices was Mikhail Matveyev, a Communist Party deputy of the State Duma. Many were arrested, with estimates as high as 2,000 people being jailed.
Furthermore, there are legitimate, repeated signs of Russian dissatisfaction and resentment toward Putin. These actions, combined with the Navalny protests in 2021, signify that change might be on the horizon. It may not be enough to impeach him, or there’s no one with enough courage to bring charges right now. Yet theoretically and constitutionally, it could happen. And the likelihood of such an event grows greater each time Putin displays his totalitarianism.
