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Country Profile:

Russia
  • Russia
  • Russian Federation
  • Region: Europe

Description of government structure:

  • Chief of State: President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN
  • Head of Government: Premier Dmitry Anatolyevich MEDVEDEV
  • Assembly: Russia has a bicameral Federal Assembly (Federalnoye Sobraniye) consisting of the Federation Council (Sovet Federatsii) with 178 seats and the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma) with 450 seats.

Description of electoral system:

  • The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 6-year term.
  • The Premier is appointed by the president.
  • In the Federation Council (Sovet Federatsii) 178 members are appointed by regional governing councils*. In the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma) 450 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 5-year terms.**

* There are 89 constituencies with a district magnitude of two. Terms to the Federation Council are not nationally fixed, Terms instead are determined according to the regional bodies they represent.

** Seats are allocated using the Hare quota. There is one, nationwide district and a minimum threshold of 7%.

Population:

  • Population: 138,739,892 (July 2011 est.)

Past elections

Last Updated on 05/07/2012

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