STATE-TERRITORIAL STRUCTURE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: HISTORY AND CURRENT STATUS

Abstract

The state of affairs that has developed in the political sphere of the Russian state directly affects not only legal regulation concerning the issues of the country’s territorial organization, but also the strengthening of such a principle as federalism. In addition, the issues of the territorial organization of the state are directly related to various circumstances of a demographic nature and connected to the historical aspect of development, as well as the cultural sphere. This article draws attention to the fact that the problematic aspects of the federal form of the structure of the state itself have a direct impact on the understanding and consolidation of the legal status of the subjects of the Russian Federation. In the article, the authors emphasize that the sovereignty of the Russian state operates on the entire territory of Russia, which, in turn, is inseparable and integral. The article confirms the idea that the subjects of the Federation do not act as sovereign units due to the fact that only the Russian state as a whole is considered sovereign. It is argued that the territorial organization of individual subjects of the Federation as well as the territorial organization of the state of the Russian Federation should be considered on a larger scale, even when it comes to complex subjects of the Russian Federation. Based on the research of Russian representatives of the scientific community, the authors in the present article note that within the Russian Federation there are complex subjects — oblasts (regions), which include an additional subject (or multiple subjects) of the Russian Federation, for example, an autonomous okrug (district). Despite the territorial specifics of the structure of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the authors come to the conclusion that the statuses of complex subjects of the Russian Federation are equal. Regarding the research methodology, such general and specific scientific research methods as empirical, dialectical, historical methods, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction were used.