Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly (Russia)

The annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly (Russian: Послание Президента России Федеральному собранию) is a speech given by the Russian President to outline the state and condition in which Russia is in. It is given in front of a joint meeting of the two houses of the Russian Parliament: the Russian Duma and Federation Council. The Article 84 of the current Constitution of Russia enacted in 1993 says "The President of the Russian Federation shall: address the Federal Assembly with annual messages on the situation in the country, on the guidelines of the internal and foreign policy of the State". First Russian President Boris Yeltsin delivered the first Address to the Federal Assembly on February 24, 1994. The date of the presidential address is not permanent.

History

In the Soviet Union before the establishment of the post of President of the Soviet legal institutions, such messages are not there (this was obviously due to the fact that the Soviet political and legal doctrine does not recognize the concept of separation of powers), but, in fact, their role in the political sense of the play Report of the CC of the CPSU Party Congress.

After the presidency of the Soviet Union in the USSR Constitution was amended to provide that the President of the USSR "... represents the Congress of People's Deputies annual reports on the situation of the country, informs the Supreme Soviet of the most important issues of domestic and foreign policy of the Soviet Union", but no One of these reports, Mikhail Gorbachev simply do not have time because of the short-term stay in the presidential office. At the same time, Gorbachev spoke March 31, 1990 with a message to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in which he proposed "a priority to consider and adopt the Resolution" On urgent measures for the advancement of women, maternal and child health, strengthening families", and April 13 of that year - to the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR and the Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian SSR, which pointed out the unacceptability of a situation in which "... the republic's leadership makes all new legislative acts and decisions, which contrasted with the Lithuanian SSR and other republics of the Soviet Union as a whole ".

In the Russian Federation, the rate on the treatment head of state with the highest legislative body of letters first appeared in the Law of the RSFSR of April 24, 1991 "On the President of the RSFSR," in accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 5 of the President "... is not less than once a year report to the Congress of People's Deputies on the implementation adopted by the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the socio-economic and other programs, the situation of the RSFSR, the messages to the people of the RSFSR Congress of People's Deputies and Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. The Congress of People's Deputies by a majority vote of the People's Deputies shall have the right to request from the President of the RSFSR extraordinary report ".

Yeltsin before the Russian Constitution several times with messages addressed directly to the people of Russia. In particular, the December 10, 1992 from the rostrum of VII Congress of People's Deputies, he appealed to citizens to gather signatures for the initiative to hold a referendum on confidence in the President. [7], March 20, 1993, he again spoke, this time with a televised address to the nation of Russia, which announced the appointment on 25 April of that year of the nationwide referendum, and then logged into the story, entitled "Yes, yes, no, yes". [7] After the entry into force of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993 presidential address messages to the Parliament acquired the character of an annual practice. The first such message from the President of the Federal Assembly, was announced February 24, 1994. [8]

Legal basis

From a purely legal point of view, the president's message is not a normative legal act of the head of state and has no legal force. Laws also does not provide a form of response to the Federal Assembly of the message of the President.

By its very nature, constitutional message could not be regarded as a legal document of the President because the Constitution provides for only two types of instruments the head of state - its decrees and orders. At the same message is an important political and policy document addressed, in fact, not only to Parliament but to all other authorities in the Russian Federation, to society as a whole. Therefore, we feature such messages as political acts with elements of the regulatory functions or as a regulatory and political form of the head of state.

Content and Form of the Epistle as a whole depends on the discretion of the President and any special rules are not regulated, except for the fact that the Federal Law of July 20, 1995 № 115-FZ "On State Forecasting and programs of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation" established the following requirement: "Annual Message of the President of the Russian Federation, with whom he refers to the Federal Assembly, contains a special section devoted to the analysis of the program of socio-economic development of Russia's medium-term and refinement of the program with the allocation of tasks for the coming year" (Part 2 items . 5). However, in practice this requirement is not met. House of the Federal Assembly on the results of the hearing of Presidential addresses often make special provisions for implementing the planned legislative activities in the messages.).

Federal executive bodies also respond to the message the head of state adoption of the relevant legal acts, which are set-up to the task set by the President. Paragraph 2.1 of the Model Rules of the internal organization of the federal bodies of executive power, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, provided that "the planning of the federal executive body for the main activities carried out on the basis of the Message of the President of the Russian Federation Federal Assembly, the Budget message of the President of the Russian Federation Federal Assembly ... ". . The subjects of the Russian Federation in the development of the provisions of the Message are also taking their regulations. [15] All this testifies to the significant role played by the message of the President, not only politically but also in law-making process.