Lawsuit vs amendment: Russian regions activity dynamics in using Constitutional Court appeals and legislative initiatives at federal level

Introduction: Russian regions use two mechanisms of interaction with the federal center - appeals to the Constitutional Court and legislative initiative at the federal level. Both mechanisms have important common characteristics - publicity, formal procedures with relatively low participation costs, and a common basic function - changing federal legislation. Objectives: to determine the nature of the influence of the authoritarian centralization of the 2000s on the use of these mechanisms by the regions. Methods: collection of data set on the use of interaction mechanisms, comparative analysis, correlation analysis. Results: significant differences were revealed in the general dynamics of regional activity and in the dynamics of individual regions and groups of regions; three periods in the use of these mechanisms by the regions have been identified, mid-1990s - 2005, 2005-2008 (transitional) and 2009-2019; there is a redistribution of thematically “sensitive” issues between the two mechanisms. Conclusions: authoritarian centralization influenced the use of both mechanisms by the regions: the activity on appeals to the Constitutional Court sharply decreased; this drop was partially compensated by another mechanism - the share of bills on the subject of state building increased.