The Federation Council meets for an extraordinary meeting in the midst of the conflict over Ukraine. For what?

An extraordinary meeting of the Federation Council is scheduled for February 22 (this coming Tuesday). Initially it was supposed to take place on March 2. Officially on the agenda is a law to increase pensions for military veterans. Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko said that “increasing military pensions will be a kind of gift for Defender of the Fatherland Day,” and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin asked to hurry with it.

However, many political scientists and journalists believe that the convening of the upper house is directly related to the worsening of the Ukrainian crisis. Earlier on the same day, a meeting of the State Duma was scheduled, which turned to Vladimir Putin with a request to recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR.

No. Russian legislation does not directly stipulate the procedure for recognizing foreign states, and there are no clarifications from the Constitutional Court on this matter. At the same time, Article 86 of the Constitution states that the president directs the country’s foreign policy, from which lawyers conclude that recognition of foreign states is “the implied authority of the president.”

In practice, it is the presidential decrees that serve as confirmation of the official recognition of the state by Russia. This happened in 2008, when the president (then Dmitry Medvedev) recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia ; the same thing happened in 2014, when, before Crimea was admitted to the Russian Federation, President Putin first recognized its independence.

Moreover, in the case of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both houses of the Russian parliament simultaneously addressed the president with a corresponding request.

We don't know. The Federation Council has other constitutional powers that the Kremlin may need in the current situation. In particular, in accordance with Article 102 of the Constitution, the jurisdiction of the upper house includes:

• approval of the decree of the President of Russia on the introduction of martial law;
• approval of the decree introducing a state of emergency;
• resolving the issue of the possibility of using the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation abroad.

Theoretically, one can imagine that Putin will ask senators to approve his own decision on the use of the Russian army (regardless of whether he previously recognizes the “people’s republics” or not).

True, back in 2009, an article was introduced into the Law “On Defense” on the “operational” use of Russian troops abroad, in particular , “to protect citizens of the Russian Federation outside the territory of the Russian Federation from an armed attack on them” (and in the “republics” of Donbass, thanks to the distribution of passports,there are a lot of Russian citizens). It may seem that for each such situation a separate resolution of the Federation Council is needed, but this is not so: in the same 2009, the upper house of the Russian parliament adopted a single resolution , which gives such a right to the president in all future cases. Putin, in particular, took advantage of this mechanism in early January, when he sent troops into Kazakhstan.

But sometimes the Russian President still addresses the Federation Council. This was the case, in particular, before the annexation of Crimea (then the upper house allowed Putin to use the army throughout Ukraine and revoked this permission only a few months later, when negotiations began on a ceasefire in Donbass) and before the start of the Russian operation in Syria in 2015.

By law, martial law is imposed in several cases. This is for example:

• invasion or attack on a country
• blockade of ports and coasts
• attack on the Russian Armed Forces regardless of their location
• actions of a foreign state (group of states) allowing its territory to be used by another state to commit an act of aggression

Martial law is introduced throughout the country or in certain parts of it and involves a serious restriction of the rights and freedoms of citizens , as well as the transfer of almost all power to the hands of the president. A decree on martial law is also issued by the president, and the Federation Council must approve it within 48 hours.

This really requires permission from the Federation Council, but there is very little time. In the case of Crimea, Putin first recognized the independence of the peninsula, the next day signed an annexation treaty with its leaders, and three days later the senators ratified this treaty. It doesn’t look like the authorities will have time to organize all this by February 22, if they plan to do so at all, which is highly doubtful

We don't know. But on the same day, and even at the same time, does not mean together. In accordance with the new version of the Constitution (Article 100), joint sessions are held only to hear messages from the President. He addresses them once a year, and in 2022 there was no message yet; it was reported that it is scheduled for March.

True, after the Crimean referendum, both chambers (as well as delegates from the peninsula) gathered in the Kremlin for a special “address” from Putin.

We hope so. For example, in April 2021, when the situation around Ukraine also escalated sharply, senators also gathered for a plenary session, which some experts also considered extraordinary. And then they believed that we could talk about the same thing that they are talking about today - about the entry of Russian troops into the territory of Ukraine and/or about the annexation of Donbass . In the end, neither one nor the other happened. True, at that time the senators themselvesdenied that the meeting was an extraordinary one, but this time it will definitely not go according to schedule.

Dmitry Kartsev