Federal Reforms in Russia: Putin’s Challenge to the Republics

he development of the Russian federal system has been marked by conflict, co-optation, and consensus. Emerging from the generally unitary Russian republic within a formally federal but largely unitary Soviet Union, post-Soviet Russia began its development as a federal system with little experience and few institutional structures salvageable from the earlier system. The patchwork Soviet-era constitution adapted to the newly independent political system was insufficiently clear to structure adequately political interactions across levels of society. The construction of a functioning federal system also began with the regime already at a disadvantage: In struggling for power with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian president Boris Yeltsin advised all of Russia’s regions to take as much sovereignty as they could swallow. Ultimately, although this recommendation helped Yeltsin win Russia’s independence, it hampered the future development of federalism, for the regions had become mindful of their autonomy and willing to ignore central laws and edicts. The most independent category of regions in Russia under the Soviets and after are the republics, which have historical basis in Lenin’s nationalities policy that was instrumental in the formation of the Soviet Union. Built on a legacy of advantage that was perhaps more de jure than de facto, the republics have been more independence minded. During his tenure as post-Soviet Russia’s leader, Yeltsin worked to re-establish central authority, however. This process followed four basic stages. First, the 1992 Federation Treaty between Russia’s regions and the central government stopped centrifugal forces that threatened the disintegration of the state and established Russia’s republics as virtual state entities. Second, the 1993 Russian constitution began the process of re-integrating an inchoate political system following the president’s victory over the Soviet-era legislature, the Supreme Soviet. The constitution eliminated almost all privileges allocated to the