Protest forms of public participation as guarantees of internal self-determination

This article studies legal links between the concepts of internal self-determination of the peoples and the possibility to constructively express protest against the actions and decisions of public authorities or a lack thereof. The authors show that legally ensured possibility of constructive protest behaviour is a guarantee of self-determination in its internal aspect. The article starts with the overview of international law foundations of internal selfdetermination, coupled with the overview of academic literature in this field. The authors continue with analysing concrete modes of utilizing the right to public participation, freedom of expression, petition, assembly and association in order to express constructive protest within the limits of the legal system of the Russian Federation.