Valery Zorkin | |
|---|---|
Валерий Зорькин | |
.jpg) Zorkin in 2024 | |
| 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 | Nikolay Vitruk (acting) Vladimir Tumanov |
| Judge of theConstitutional Court of Russia | |
| Assumed office 29 October 1991 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1943-02-18)18 February 1943 (age 82) Konstantinovka,Primorsky Krai,Russian SFSR,USSR |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union(1970–1991) |
| Alma mater | Moscow State University (Faculty of Law) |
Valery Dmitrievich Zorkin (Russian:Вале́рий Дми́триевич Зо́рькин; born 18 February 1943) is a Russian jurist serving as the 4th and currentPresident of theConstitutional Court of the Russian Federation. He also served as the 1st President of the Constitutional Court in 1991-1993.
As of 2025, Zorkin is the oldest high-ranking officeholder in Russia.[1]
Zorkin was born on February 18, 1943, in the village ofKonstantinovka, in theOktyabrsky District of thePrimorsky Krai (Maritime Province). In 1964, he graduated with a law degree from theFaculty of Law ofMoscow State University, where he worked as a lecturer until the late 1980s. During this time, he also taught at theHigher Correspondence School of Law of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and became a professor. Zorkin was recognized as a leading expert on the legal teachings ofBoris Chicherin and led a group of experts under the Soviet Constitutional Commission to further the case for Russia to become apresidential republic during the last years of theSoviet Union. After theAugust coup, Zorkin left theCPSU.
In October 1991, Zorkin became a judge of theConstitutional Court of Russia. On November 1, he was elected the first (and only)President of the Court with unlimited tenure, and during theRussian constitutional crisis of 1992-1993, he and the Constitutional Court clashed withPresidentBoris Yeltsin over a number of issues. This included his decision to ban the Communist Party and, later, theNational Salvation Front. On November 30, 1992, Zorkin's court overturned Yeltsin's decision to dissolve thelocal branches of the Communist Party, agreeing with Yeltsin that it was legal to dissolve the ruling bodies of a political party.[2]
In September 1993, Zorkin became involved in a bitter dispute about the legality of President Yeltsin's decision to dissolve theSupreme Soviet of Russia, a decision that went against the outdatedConstitution 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[3]) 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.[3] However, eight out of the twelve judges present at the court session suggested that Zorkin should not resign. Four judges, includingNikolay Vitruk,Ernest Ametistov,Tamara Morshchakova, andVladimir 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 theextremist activities ofRutskoy andKhasbulatov".[3][4]
On October 6, Zorkin submitted his resignation as President of the Court, which was accepted by the Constitutional Court. Judge Vitruk was appointedacting President of the Constitutional Court, but on December 1 he and fellow judgeViktor 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 newConstitution 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 withGennady Zyuganov,Alexander Rutskoy,Alexander Prokhanov,Sergey Glazyev,Stanislav Govorukhin,Aman Tuleyev et al.[5] Despite writing the main report for the conference, Zorkin later left the Concord foundation due to his warnings from the Court regarding political activities.[6] 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 andPrime Minister's decision to send Russian troops toChechnya was justified.[4]
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 inRossiyskaya Gazeta praisingserfdom. In this article, Zorkin argued that serfdom united Russia and likened itsabolition in 1861 to Yeltsin's 1990s reforms.[7]
In December 2022 theEU sanctioned Valery Zorkin in relation to the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[8]
Media related toValery Zorkin at Wikimedia Commons
| Legal offices | ||
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| Preceded by Office established | President of the Constitutional Court of Russia 1991–1993 | Next: Vladimir Tumanov |
| Preceded by | President of the Constitutional Court of Russia 2003–present | Incumbent |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
