The form of government as one of the three characteristics of the structure of the state, determined by the method of formation of the public authorities. The classic formula defines a republic as a form of government in which the supreme authorities elected or formed a national representative institution. Depending on the procedure of formation of executive power and the place of the President (Head of State) in the government distinguished presidential, parliamentary and semi-presidential republic, in which the law or in fact the president is always a chief executive or a part of it. At the same time the fundamental principles governing the system of state power and the place of its president, is the principle of separation of powers and independence of authorities (Art. 10 The Constitution of the Russian Federation), as well as the unity of state power (Pt. 3 of Art. 5 The Constitution of the Russian Federation). Methods. The methodological basis of research supports internally interconnected complex methods of knowledge: system-structural, functional, logical, historical. The basic general legal methods are comparative legal and formal-legal, allowing the author to explore the legal basis of the formal and the actual form of government in Russia, comparing the attributes of the Parliamentary, presidential and semi-presidential republic. Results. It is stated that at the present stage of development of the Russian state needs to shift from sverhprezidentskoy to parliamentary form of government with the relevant constitutional changes in law and practice.