The Impact of Amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation on the System of Checks and Balances

The paper examines the impact of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation on the system of checks and balances. The topic is relevant in connection with the large-scale constitutional reform carried out in 2020, which caused an ambiguous assessment from the scientific community. In the original text of the Constitution, quite a lot of different mechanisms of checks and balances were laid down, which can begin to operate at various times, both ordinary (for example, the expiration of a term of office) and extraordinary (for example, the application of certain procedures at critical, from a political point of view, moments). The author comes to the conclusion that the amendments made to the text of the Constitution of the Russian Federation complicate the understanding of the relationship between the main players of political power, nullify the existing outline of checks and balances, increasing the imbalance between the President and other public institutions of power. There was a constitutional legitimation of the deformation that could be observed over the past decades.