The decentralization that took place in the Russian Federation in the course of economic and political reforms of the 1990s was a spontaneous process that lacked a clearly defined strategy. However, by the end of the century it had some significant achievements to its credit. One such achievement was that regional and local authorities were granted the right to independently plan their respective budgets. In line with the reform concept, a significant portion of expenditure responsibilities were assigned to RF regions and municipalities. At the same time the federal center retained the majority of revenue sources – a feature that is more like to be found in unitary states. It is the purpose of this paper to see how far Russia has traveled along the decentralization road and which direction it will follow in the future.
