IFES Election Guide | Country Profile: Russian Federation

Russian Federation

143,895,551	12
Population (as of Feb. 8, 2019)	Elections in our database
109,204,662	64.08%
Registered Voters (as of None)	Average Turnout

Name	Official Name	Type
Russian Federal Duma	Gosudarstvennaya Duma	Lower House
Russian Federation Council	Sovet Federatsii	Upper House
Russian Presidency	None	Head of State

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 166 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) 166 members are appointed by regional governing councils.[1]
In the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma) 225 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.[2] The other 225 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms.[3]

[1] There are 83 constituencies with a district magnitude of two. Terms to the Federation Council are not nationally fixed.

[2] Proportional representation seats are allocated using the Hare quota. For these seats, there is one nationwide district and a minimum threshold of 5% (lowered from 7% on 24 February 2014).

[3] On 24 February 2014, the State Duma voted to replace the system of full proportional representation established in 2007 whereby all members were elected through closed party lists with the previous mixed system that includes direct elections to single-member constituencies. In addition, all political parties must now present 200,000 signatures to register and all independent candidates must present the signatures of at least 3% of voters in their constituency. If a party received at least 3% of votes in the previous election or if at least one party member sits in a regional legislature, the party is exempt from this requirement. Candidates are allowed to run as both individual candidates and as members of a party list.

Elections

Election For	Date	Votes	Registered Voters	Turn Out
Russian Federal Duma	1999-12-19	65,370,655	108,072,348	60.49%
Russian Presidency	2000-03-26	75,070,776	109,372,046	68.64%
Russian Federal Duma	2003-12-07	60,633,179	108,906,244	55.67%
Russian Presidency	2004-03-14	69,581,761	108,064,281	64.39%
Russian Federal Duma	2007-12-02	69,537,065	109,145,517	63.71%
Russian Presidency	2008-03-02	102,767,070	107,222,016	95.85%
Russian Federal Duma	2011-12-04	65,656,526	109,237,780	60.1%
Russian Presidency	2012-03-04	71,701,665	109,860,331	65.27%
Russian Federal Duma	2016-09-18	52,631,849	110,061,200	47.82%
Russian Presidency	2018-03-18	73,578,992	109,008,428	67.5%
Referendum	2020-07-01	74,114,217	109,190,337	67.88%
Russian Federal Duma	2021-09-19	56,329,690	109,204,662	51.58%

Russian Federation

Description of government structure:

Description of electoral system:

Elections

Voter Turnout