The National Counci L for Soviet and East Europea

This paper reports in summary the main points that emerged in a Russian Academy of Sciences workshop on regional charters which took place in Mosco w on March 13-17, 1995 . The author concludes : Relations between Russia's federal subjects and Moscow remain largely a power struggle, flavored by varied interpretations of constitutionality interpretations that the powers that be in Moscow are only too ready to supply . There is, unfortunately, little understanding of the fact that provisions in th e Russian Federation constitution other than those dealing with center-periphery relations will, in the long run, determine the form and fate of federalism in Russia . The lesson of federalism in the U .S., Canada, Switzerland, Germany, an d Australia is that political parties not only reflect formal, federal relations, but the y also determine how those relations are implemented and interpreted . For example , the decentralized yet integrated parties in the U .S . ensures that national politica l elites will be protective of regional interests, whereas the decentralized, wholl y regional parties in Canada results in regional and national leaders oftentimes actin g wholly in conflict . The structure and operation of parties, in turn, are a function of election laws, the authority of upper legislative chambers, the ways in whic h members of those upper chambers are elected or appointed, and the extent to whic h regional and local governments have meaningful authority subject to the control o f officials elected by meaningful elections . Until and unless these other influences on federal relations are understood and adjusted to meet the requirements of stabl e federal relations in Russia, the Russian brand of federalism will more closel y approximate that of, say, Mexico or Spain than of the United States, Germany, o r Switzerland . The early stages of the development of Russian federalism, including the drafting o f republic constitutions and the Russian Federation constitution, were dominated by the sortin g of relations between Moscow and the republics, and by disputes over the issues of sovereignt y and the supremacy of federal law . Bilateral federal treaties appear to have resolved the issue of sovereignty (at least for awhile) . However, the issue of supremacy remains, although shar p positions here are slowly giving way to ambiguously worded side agreements between Mosco w and each republic . In contrast, Moscow's relation to its regions emphasizes different issues -the degree o f autonomy Moscow will allow its regions and the authority of each region with respect t o designing regional governmental structures . Confronted with the task of drafting regiona l