Local government as an authority matter of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation: legislative policy in the post-Soviet period

The study reviews the main trends of Russian legislative policy on regulating the powers of state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the field of local government after the collapse of the USSR. The author analyzes the relevant provisions of the Russian Constitution, the standards of federal municipal laws of 1995 and 2003. The paper notes that the federal legislator consistently narrows the powers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, which is criticized in political and legal literature. However, this approach is largely due to objective circumstances (primarily, the subsidized budgets of the vast majority of municipalities and most Russian regions). At the same time, the study substantiates the best ways to address the stated problem.