The Federation Council re-elected 80-year-old Valery Zorkin to the post of Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Russia, according to the Federation Council website.
“The decision was made unanimously. 153 senators voted for him,” writes TASS. Zorkin's powers have been extended for another six years. Previously, Vladimir Putin proposed leaving him as head of the Constitutional Court.
Zorkin headed the Constitutional Court in 1991-1993; later, after a break, in 2003 he again took up this post. Previously, a person over 70 years of age could not be elected head of the court, but in 2010, Dmitry Medvedev, who was then president, signed amendments that abolished age restrictions for a candidate for the post of chairman of the Constitutional Court.
In 2020 “Project” said that Zorkin owns real estate near Rublyovka worth more than 220 million rubles — while, as the publication emphasized, the cost of the mansion is equal to his earnings for 17 years. In December 2022, due to the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union added Zorkin to the sanctions list.