in
parentheses)

Independence: 24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday: Independence Day, June 12 (1990)

Constitution: adopted 12 December 1993

Legal system: based on civil law system; judicial review of
legislative acts

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
chief of state: President Boris Nikolayevich YEL'TSIN (since 12 June
1991)
head of government: Premier Yevgeniy Maksimovich PRIMAKOV (since 11
September 1998), First Deputy Premiers Yuriy Dmitriyevich MASLYUKOV
(since 11 September 1998) and Vadim Anatol'yevich GUSTOV (since 11
September 1998); Deputy Premiers Vladimir Broisovich BULGAK (since
11 September 1998), Gennadiy Vasil'yevich KULIK (since 11 September
1998), and Valentin Ivanovna MATVIYENKO (since 11 September 1998)
cabinet: Ministries of the Government or "Government" composed of
the premier and his deputies, ministers, and other agency heads; all
are appointed by the president
note: there is also a Presidential Administration (PA) that provides
staff and policy support to the president, drafts presidential
decrees, and coordinates policy among government agencies; a
Security Council also reports directly to the president
elections: president elected by popular vote for a four-year term;
election last held 16 June 1996 with runoff election on 3 July 1996
(next to be held NA June 2000); note--no vice president; if the
president dies in office, cannot exercise his powers because of ill
health, is impeached, or resigns, the premier succeeds him; the
premier serves as acting president until a new presidential election
is held, which must be within three months; premier and deputy
premiers appointed by the president with the approval of the Duma
election results: Boris Nikolayevich YEL'TSIN elected president;
percent of vote in runoff--YEL'TSIN 54%, Gennadiy Andreyevich
ZYUGANOV 40%

Legislative branch: bicameral Federal Assembly or Federal'noye
Sobraniye consists of the Federation Council or Sovet Federatsii
(178 seats, filled ex-officio by the top executive and legislative
officials in each of the 89 federal administrative units--oblasts,
krays, republics, autonomous okrugs and oblasts, and the federal
cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg; members serve four-year terms)
and the State Duma or Gosudarstvennaya Duma (450 seats, half elected
in single-member districts and half elected from national pa