The constitutional legal guarantees of the freedom of conscience in the Russian Federation: definition, content, essence

The article examines the problems of the realization of the right to freedom of conscience in theRussian Federation. Freedom of conscience, including freedom of religion, is one of those guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and implies the right to profess, individually or jointly with others, any religion or not to profess any, freely choose, have and disseminate religious and other beliefs and act according to them. At the same time, in practice and in the constitutional and legal doctrine, there is no common understanding of the term «constitutional and legal guarantees of the right to freedom of conscience in the Russian Federation.» This leads to problems of determining their essence and content. At the present stage, this is one of the most actual problems of great social, practical and scientific importance. Based on the study of the current legislation governing public relations in the field of exercising the right to freedom of conscience, theoretical research of various scientists, an attempt was made to formulate the concept of «constitutional and legal guarantees of the right to freedom of conscience in the Russian Federation», to identify problems of classification, to propose promising ways for their elimination.