section_path: Authorities/Moscow authorities
section_name: Moscow authorities
paragraph_text: Moscow authorities
  
  According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Moscow is an independent federal subject of the Russian Federation, a city of federal importance.
  
  The Mayor of Moscow is the leading official in the executive, leading the Government of Moscow, which is the highest organ of executive power.The Moscow City Duma is the city duma (city council or local parliament) and local laws must be approved by it. It includes 45 members who are elected for a five-year term on single-mandate constituency basis.
  
  From 2006 to 2012, direct elections of the mayor were not held due to changes in the Charter of the city of Moscow, with the mayor appointed by presidential decree. The first direct elections from the time of the 2003 vote were to be held after the expiration of the current mayor in 2015, however, in connection with his resignation of his own free will, they took place in September 2013.
  
  Local administration is carried out through eleven prefectures, uniting the districts of Moscow into administrative districts on a territorial basis, and 125 regional administrations. According to the law "On the organization of local self-government in the city of Moscow", since the beginning of 2003, the executive bodies of local self-government are municipalities, representative bodies are municipal assemblies, whose members are elected in accordance with the Charter of the intracity municipality.