The place and role of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the mechanism of criminal law reforming

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation plays an important role in provision of citizens' rights. The Constitution of the Russian Federation (part 4, article 125) invests the Constitutional Court with powers: on appeals against violation of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens and on courts' requests it checks validity of statue, applied or liable for application in a specific case. The analysis of the rulings of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (2012-2015) allowed the authors to come to the conclusion that they eliminate the restrictions, which the norms of the criminal law contain, in order to protect rights and freedoms of citizens, which fully corresponds to formation of the rule-of-law state in Russia. Herewith, the authors pay attention to the necessity of solving a long-standing problem of non-compliance with decisions of the Constitutional Court.