Russia consists of 49 regions (oblasts), 21 republics, 10 autonomous districts (okrugs), 6 territories (krays), 2 federal cities (Moscow and Saint Petersburg) and 1 autonomous region (oblast). Altogether it makes 89 federal administrative units of the Russian Federation. In 1990 national republics within the Russian Republic (RSFSR) received the same status as republics of the Soviet Union. This move has been widely seen as the introduction of the parade of sovereignties to the regional level.
Yeltsin's milestones
Boris Yeltsin continued this trend by calling upon Russia's regions in 1990 "to take as much sovereignty as you can swallow". The idea behind this generous and controversial policy was twofold: on the one hand, to weaken the Union power, namely Gorbachev, and to prevent the strengthening of the nationalistic movements in the national republics, on the other. However, the parade of sovereignties reached such proportions that Yeltsin had to push for a Federal Treaty that would stabilize the relation. The main beneficiaries of the Treaty were the regions that acquired broad autonomies. Moreover, the Treaty was signed only by 45 subjects, while 43 opted not to sign, thus creating a lot of space for personal bargaining and making the entire relationship even more unpredictable.
Putin's milestones
The beginning of Vladimir Putin's Presidency in 2000 marked a new stage in the regional relations. Conducting the policy of strengthening the role of central power Putin first reformed the Council of Federation – the upper chamber of the Federal Assembly – by substituting governors with appointed representatives. Secondly, in order to exercise better control of the governors, Putin appointed seven Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoys (polpreds) to the newly formed seven federal districts. Finally, following the Beslan tragedy, the Kremlin has abolished the direct election of governors. Thus the situation in the center-region relations is such that the Kremlin-appointed governors are controlled by the Kremlin-appointed envoys. As a result, the Kremlin Administration is taking more and more responsibility for the regional affairs.
On the subject read also an article by James Aleksander: Federal Reforms in Russia: Putin's Challenge to the Republics. Demoktratizatsiya, Spring 2004.