It is the President who appoints the Prime Minister in Russia by taking the suggestions of the Duma. The Prime Minister is first in line to the Russian Presidency in case of resignation or death of the Russian President. The role played by a Prime Minister in Russia was quite subservient in comparison to that played by a President. Nevertheless, everything changed in this field when Vladimir Putin pledged as the President of Russia in March 2008.
The State Duma
The State Duma is the lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly. The State Duma is a very powerful house because all bills and even the ones that are proposed by the Federation Council are first considered by the State Duma. Nevertheless, the powers of the Duma into forcing the resignation of the Government are completely restricted. The Duma might express a vote of no confidence in the Government through a majority vote of all its members, but the President possesses the power of disregarding this vote. There are a total of 450 members comprising the State Duma and they are called Deputies. Previously, half of the seats in the State Duma were elected through proportional representation and half of them were elected through single member districts. But a decree passed by President Putin in November 2007, made it mandatory that all seats in the State Duma will be elected through proportional representation with minimum 7% of the vote required for qualifying for the seats.