ABSTRACT
The political centralization that happened in the 2000s shifted responsibility for well-being and development in the regions to the central level. That period was when the federal government tried to find new models and mechanisms of regional development in Russia. The policy of support for lagging regions continued up to the end of the 1980s and was ultimately admitted as a failure. This chapter demonstrates most regional policy measures in Russia are realized within the framework of financial intergovernmental relations. The consequences of the 2008 economic crisis, as well as the staff changes in the government and the president's team, led to the revision of the ideology behind governmental regional policy. Decentralization promotes a process of interregional competition not only for federal funds and projects, but also for private investments and for the attention and prospective taxpayers within the regions. The new rules allowed the center to reduce regions' revenues from the consolidated budget.
