ABSTRACT
As I have demonstrated throughout this study, the struggle to reform local selfgovernment in Russia has been part and parcel of the wider struggle for power that has been waged between the centre and the federal subjects. During the Yeltsin era, the heads of Russia’s federal subjects, particularly in the 21 ethnic republics, were given carte blanche to develop their own political institutions, including those of ‘local government’ and ‘local self-government’. Under the protection of their constitutions and charters, and the extra-constitutional rights and powers granted to them in their bilateral treaties, republican and regional elites have been able to subjugate local level bodies with impunity.
