Valery Zorkin
Valery Zorkin | |
---|---|
Валерий Зорькин | |
President of the Constitutional Court of Russia | |
Assumed office 21 February 2003 | |
President | Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev Vladimir Putin |
Preceded by | Marat Baglai |
In office 29 October 1991 – 6 October 1993 | |
President | Boris Yeltsin |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Vladimir Tumanov |
Personal details | |
Born | USSR | 18 February 1943
Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1970–1991) |
Alma mater | Moscow State University |
Valery Dmitrievich Zorkin (
Biography
Zorkin was born on February 18, 1943, in the village of
In October 1991, Zorkin became a judge of the
In September 1993, Zorkin became involved in a bitter dispute about the legality of President Yeltsin's decision to dissolve the Supreme Soviet of Russia, a decision that went against the outdated Constitution of the RSFSR. He is often credited for standing behind the September 22, 1993 ruling by the court, which declared Yeltsin's decision unconstitutional. Although the ruling (with 9 judges supporting it and 4 against it[2]) agreed with the Constitution, Yeltsin suspended the work of the Court and forced Zorkin to resign as President of the Court on October 6, 1993. However, he retained his position as a judge of the court.
Namely, according to reports, Sergey Filatov, Kremlin Chief of Staff, called the judges on the morning of October 5, demanding the resignation of Zorkin.[2] However, eight out of the twelve judges present at the court session suggested that Zorkin should not resign. Four judges, including Nikolay Vitruk, Ernest Ametistov, Tamara Morshchakova, and Vladimir Oleynik recommended Zorkin's resignation. In the evening, Filatov himself contacted Zorkin and demanded that he step down, threatening to open a criminal case against him, accusing him of "creating a legal basis for the extremist activities of Rutskoy and Khasbulatov".[2][3]
On October 6, Zorkin submitted his resignation as President of the Court, which was accepted by the Constitutional Court. Judge Vitruk was appointed acting President of the Constitutional Court, but on December 1 he and fellow judge Viktor Luchin were removed from the Constitutional Court after a vote of 5 against 4 over their political activity.
In December, Zorkin participated in a meeting with communists, nationalists, and other opponents to the new Constitution proposed by Yeltsin. On January 25, 1994, he was reinstated as a judge. However, in March 1994, Zorkin joined the "Concord in the Name of Russia" committee, along with Gennady Zyuganov, Alexander Rutskoy, Alexander Prokhanov, Sergey Glazyev, Stanislav Govorukhin, Aman Tuleyev et al.[4] Despite writing the main report for the conference, Zorkin later left the Concord foundation due to his warnings from the Court regarding political activities.[5] Following this, Zorkin stopped political activities and, as a non-president, he reportedly disagreed with the majority decision more frequently than other judges in the court. In 1995, for example, he voiced dissent over a Court ruling that the President and Prime Minister's decision to send Russian troops to Chechnya was justified.[3]
Ten years after the court's decision that made him famous, on February 24, 2003, Zorkin was re-elected as the president of the court. Many observers viewed this as corroborative of the validity of the court's assessment of Yeltsin's actions in 1993. Controversially, in 2014, Zorkin published an article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta praising serfdom. In this article, Zorkin argued that serfdom united Russia and likened its abolition in 1861 to Yeltsin's 1990s reforms.[6]
Sanctions
In December 2022 the
Honours and awards
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland;
- 2nd class (19 October 2011) – for outstanding contribution to strengthening the constitutional foundations of Russian statehood and constitutional development
- 3rd class (18 February 2008) – for his great contribution to the development of constitutional justice in the Russian Federation and many years of fruitful activity
- Honoured Lawyer of Russia (23 March 2000) – for services to strengthen the rule of law and many years of honest work
- Diploma of the President of Russia(12 December 2008) – for active participation in the drafting of the Constitution and a great contribution to the democratic foundations of the Russian Federation
- Order of Friendship (Armenia) (2016)
References
- ^ Russian Politics and Society, p. 179, at Google Books
- ^ a b c "1991-1993". www.panorama.ru.
- ^ a b (Garant-Internet), www.garweb.ru, Гарант-Интернет. "Обзор публикаций СМИ - Интернет-конференция Председателя Конституционного Суда Российской Федерации Зорькина Валерия Дмитриевича - Гарант-Интернет". www.garweb.ru.
- ^ "ЗОРЬКИН Валерий Дмитриевич". www.panorama.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-03-28.
- ^ The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe, p. 143, at Google Books
- ^ Holodny, Elena (September 30, 2014). "Russia's Chief Justice Advocates A Return To Serfdom". Business Insider. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
- ^ "COUNCIL DECISION (CFSP) 2022/2477 of 16 December 2022". Retrieved 8 February 2023.
External links
Media related to Valery Zorkin at Wikimedia Commons
- The Moscow Times: Zorkin Says Courts Must Check Kremlin's Power
- "Authoritarian constitutionalism in Putin's Russia: A pragmatic constitutional court in a dual state"[1]
- S2CID 158388712.