Who has become the new deputy chairman of the CS
President Vladimir Putin proposed to appoint one of his oldest judges to be appointed deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (KS) Lyudmila Zharkov, who in September will reach the age of age (70 years). If Mrs. Zharkova had retired, the instance would have lost quorum, but now this will not happen, since age restrictions do not apply to the deputy chairman.
The idea of the appointment of Lyudmila Garkova to the post of deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court was received by the Federation Council on May 23, said Andrei Klishas, head of the Upper Chamber Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction. The senator clarified that the committee will preliminarily consider its candidacy on June 3, and on the 4th day the issue will be submitted to the plenary session.
Mrs. Zharkova is one of the oldest judges of the Constitutional Court and the last who was appointed by the first president Boris Yeltsin. She was born in 1955 in Petrozavodsk, by nationality – Finnish. In 1972, the lawyer began his career as the secretary of the city court, in 1979 she graduated from the legal faculty of Leningrad State University. In the 1990s she worked in the Ministry of Justice of Karelia, in 1994 she was appointed judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic, and in 1997-a judge of the Constitutional Court.
It is interesting that President Yeltsin then managed to fill out the vacancy in the Constitutional Court only on the third attempt: before that, the senators rejected the candidates of the representative of Russia in UNESCO Mikhail Fedotov and the assistant to the President Mikhail Krasnov. But when it came to Lyudmila Zharkova, the chairman of the upper house Yegor Straev said: “You need to vote without looking for such a woman!”
Recall that the vacancy that Lyudmila Hargova has to be occupied was formed on April 1 after the sudden death of the deputy chairman of Sergei Mavrin. His death exacerbated the personnel crisis in the Constitutional Court, which was caused by the achievement in 2025 of the age of age by four judges at once. Sergei Kazantsev and Larisa Krasavchikova had previously celebrated the 70th anniversary and resigned, and Nikolai Melnikov and Lyudmila Zharkov should do this in May and September, respectively.
Now, taking into account the recent appointment by the judge of the former Minister of Justice Alexander Konovalov (See “Kommersant” from April 17), in the KS nine members. The instance retains competence when it contains at least eight people. If Nikolai Melnikov and Lyudmila Zharkova retire, then the number of judges will drop below the minimum. However, taking into account the upcoming appointment of Madame Zhakova, this problem will be avoided, since age restrictions do not apply to the chairman and deputy chairman of the KS. Although, according to the law, the instance consists of 11 judges, the informed source of Kommersant says that new appointments are not yet foreseen, because the absence of a quorum is no longer threatened by the court.
The work in such a composition is not critical for the Constitutional Court, says Olga Kryazhkov, associate professor of the Constitutional Law of the Russian State University of Justice: eight judges are a minimum so that the court can accept proceedings, but he can consider them six members.
The expert calls the decision to appoint Lyudmila Zharkov “elegant”.
So far, the reduction in the number of judges did not affect the work of the KS: the total number of decisions he had taken in 2024 became a record, follows from the recently published report on the execution of decisions. However, it is obvious that with such a volume of stream of complaints and decisions of eight to nine judges it will be difficult to cope, the head of the Center for Constitutional Justice Ivan Brikulsky fears.
In addition, the Constitution of the Russian Federation imperiously and unequivocally establishes that the Constitutional Court consists of 11 judges, recalls the expert: “The norm on the quorum (which is contained in the Federal Law“ On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation ”. – « Kommersant ») it cannot mean that the Constitutional Court must exist in a smaller quantity than the Constitution provides. Otherwise, it turns out that federal law can level the constitutional norm, which means undermining the supremacy supreme, which is unacceptable. ”
