The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (CC), planned as the flagship of the judicial system, emerged in the years of perestroika - for the first time in Russian history. The article displays the process of the advanced concept of judicial reform and model of CC passing through the 90 sieve of law-making process and political obstacles. The prototype of CC, the USSR Constitutional Supervision Committee, possessed neither the authority of power, nor the power of authority, proved to be helpless in the collapsing Soviet Union and quit the stage along with the parliament. Analysis of the successive constitutional projects of 1990-1993 and comparison of the two laws on the CC (one of them adopted before, the other after the adoption of the 1993 Constitution), shows how the legislator gradually retreated under the pressure of the forces who sought to limit the role and functions of the CC in the political and legal system of the state. After that, incorporation of the CC into the presidential “vertical” took place on the basis of the president's decrees and amendments to the law on CC made in 1995-2015. The Constitutional Court has to constantly make a choice between law and politics. Originally it tried to develop an intermediate position (the CPSU case in 1992), then actively interfered in the political process, supporting one of the parties to the conflict (the events of October 1993). The activity of the CC was suspended by the president and resumed under a new law in 1995. After that, when addressing dispute matters, the CC took, as a rule, the president's side (the presidential decrees on Chechnya, 1993-1994, the abolition of popular elections of governors in 2005, the right to ignore the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, 2015). Existence of the body of constitutional justice is important for the future of the country; however, its role in cases which involve human rights and freedoms of political matters remains modest or negative. It is essential that the Constitutional Court is given back its place in the state system that would meet the letter and spirit of the Constitution.