The first part of the article considers the significance and the legal meaning of the Russian Federation President’s objectives and functions, as established by the Russian Constitution, as well as their relationship to presidential powers. The second part of the article illustrates the author’s thesis regarding the great, but theoretically undervalued, significance of the regulations contained in statute 80 of the Russian Constitution, which set out the process for expanding presidential authority. This section presents the findings of the author’s analysis of the scope and nature of the powers that had been delegated to the President through legislation and provides commentary to these findings.