According to the [[Constitution of Russia|Russian Federation's 1993 constitution]], an ''ukaz'' is a [[Decree of the President of Russia|Presidential decree]]. The English term "Executive Order" is also used by the official website as an equivalent of the Russian ''ukaz''.<ref>See [http://kremlin.ru/acts/17275 in Russian], [http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/4833 in English]</ref>
As [[normative legal act]]s, such ''ukazes'' have a status of [[by-law]] in the hierarchy of legal acts (along with a [[Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation]], instructions and directions of other officials). Presidential decreedecrees may not alter the regulations of existing legal sources - [[:Category:Treaties of Russia|Russia's international agreements]], the [[Constitution of Russia]], [[Federal Constitutional Law]]s, [[Federal Law]]s and [[laws of Russian regions]] - and may be superseded by any of these laws. For example, thanks to the Article 15 of the Constitution of Russia, the [[European Convention on Human Rights]], as an international document, has higher status, than any Russian law or presidential executive order.<ref>[http://eng.constitution.kremlin.ru/#article-15-4 "Universally recognized principles and norms of international law as well as international agreements of the Russian Federation should be an integral part of its legal system. If an international agreement of the Russian Federation establishes rules, which differ from those stipulated by law, ''then the rules of the international agreement shall be applied''."]</ref>
