Editing Politics of Russia (section)

=== Post-Soviet development under Yeltsin 1991-1993 ===
During 1992 Yeltsin and his reforms came under increasing attack from former members and officials of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], from [[Radical nationalism in Russia|extreme nationalists]], and from others calling for reform to be slowed or even halted in Russia. A locus of this opposition was increasingly the two-chamber parliament, the [[Supreme Soviet of Russia]], comprising the [[Soviet of the Republic]] and the [[Soviet of Nationalities (Supreme Soviet of Russia)|Soviet of Nationalities]]. The Chair of the Supreme Soviet, [[Ruslan Khasbulatov]], became Yeltsin's most vocal opponent. Under the [[Russian Constitution of 1978|1978 constitution]], the parliament was the supreme organ of power in Russia.

After Russia added the office of president in 1991, the division of powers between the two branches remained ambiguous, while the [[Congress of People's Deputies of Russia]] (CPD) retained its obvious power "to examine and resolve any matter within the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation". In 1992 the Congress was even further empowered, gaining the ability to suspend any articles of the Constitution, per amended article 185 of the 1978 Constitution (Basic Law) of the Russian Federation.

Although Yeltsin managed to beat back most challenges to his reform program when the CPD met in April 1992, in December he suffered a significant loss of his special executive powers. The CPD ordered him to halt appointments of administrators in the localities and also the practice of naming additional local oversight emissaries (termed "presidential representatives"). Yeltsin also lost the power to issue special decrees concerning the economy, while retaining his constitutional power to issue [[Decree of the President of Russia|decrees]] in accordance with existing laws.

When the CPD rejected Yeltsin's attempt to secure the confirmation of Gaidar as prime minister (December 1992), Yeltsin appointed [[Viktor Chernomyrdin]], whom the parliament approved because he was viewed as more economically conservative than Gaidar. After contentious negotiations between the parliament and Yeltsin, the two sides agreed to hold a national referendum to allow the population to determine the basic division of powers between the two branches of government. In the meantime, proposals for extreme limitation of Yeltsin's power were tabled.{{by whom|date=June 2016}}

However, early 1993 saw increasing tension between Yeltsin and the parliament over the <!--language of the -->referendum and over power-sharing. In mid-March 1993, an emergency session of the CPD rejected Yeltsin's proposals on power-sharing and canceled the referendum, again opening the door to legislation that would shift the balance of power away from the president. Faced with these setbacks, Yeltsin addressed the nation directly to announce a "special regime", under which he would assume extraordinary executive power pending the results of a referendum on the timing of new legislative elections, on a new constitution, and on public confidence in the president and vice president. After the [[Constitutional Court of Russia|Constitutional Court]] declared his announcement unconstitutional, Yeltsin backed down.

Despite Yeltsin's change of heart, a second extraordinary session of the CPD took up discussion of emergency measures to defend the constitution, including impeachment of the president. Although the impeachment vote failed, the CPD set new terms for a popular referendum. The legislature's version of the referendum asked whether citizens had confidence in Yeltsin, approved of his reforms, and supported early presidential and legislative elections.

Under the CPD's terms, Yeltsin would need the support of 50 percent of eligible voters, rather than 50 percent of those actually voting, to avoid an early presidential election. In the [[1993 Russian government referendum|vote on 25 April]], Russians failed to provide this level of approval, but a majority of voters approved Yeltsin's policies and called for new legislative elections. Yeltsin termed the results, which delivered a serious blow to the prestige of the parliament, a mandate for him to continue in power.

In June 1993 Yeltsin [[Decree of the President of Russia|decreed]] the creation of a special constitutional convention to examine the draft constitution that he had presented in April. This convention was designed to circumvent the parliament, which was working on its own draft constitution. As expected, the two main drafts contained contrary views of legislative-executive relations. The convention, which included delegates from major political and social organizations and the 89 subnational jurisdictions, approved a compromise draft constitution in July 1993, incorporating some aspects of the parliament's draft. The parliament failed to approve the draft, however.

In late September 1993, Yeltsin responded to the impasse in legislative-executive relations by repeating his announcement of a constitutional referendum, but this time he followed the announcement by dissolving the parliament and announcing new legislative elections for December (''see'' [[Russian constitutional crisis of 1993]]). The CPD again met in emergency session, confirmed Vice President [[Aleksandr Rutskoy]] as president, and voted to impeach Yeltsin. On 27 September, military units surrounded the legislative building (popularly known as the [[White House (Moscow)|White House]] - {{langx |ru| Белый дом}}), but 180 delegates refused to leave the building. After a two-week standoff, Rutskoy urged supporters outside the legislative building to overcome Yeltsin's military forces. Firefights and destruction of property resulted at several locations in Moscow.

The next day, on 3 October 1993  Yeltsin chose a radical solution to settle his dispute with parliament: he called up tanks to shell the parliament building.  Under the direction of Minister of Defense [[Pavel Grachev]], tanks fired on the White House, and military forces occupied the building and the rest of the city. As Yeltsin was taking the unconstitutional step of dissolving the legislature, Russia came the closest to serious civil conflict since the revolution of 1917. This open, violent confrontation remained a backdrop to Yeltsin's relations with the legislative branch for the next three years.