Relations between the center and regions in Russia, being always in the limelight of attention in political science literature, remain a battlefield of different scholarly interpretations. Several narratives shape the current debate on Russian subnational regionalism or, in very legalistic terms, “federalism.” One is bent on applying to Russia such normatively-loaded concepts as multilevel and networked governance, meta-governance, indigenous governance, civil society participation, and others with strong liberal and institutional pedigrees. In this vein, Russia might be referred to—for example, along with Germany and France—as a “post-imperial democracy,” with an implicit anticipation of the prefix “post-” to signify Moscow's commitment to a democratic, rather than imperial, future. Seen from this perspective, with all its specificity Russia still conforms to basic standards of democratic rule and therefore can be approached, described, and analyzed in the language applicable to the liberal west, where institutions mitigate controversies over interests and create consensus over rules of the game.

中文翻译：

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俄罗斯“联邦主义”：不自由？帝国？例外主义者？

俄罗斯中央与地区的关系一直是政治学文献关注的焦点，仍然是不同学术解释的战场。几种叙述塑造了当前关于俄罗斯地方区域主义的辩论，或者用非常合法的术语来说，“联邦主义”。一个人倾向于将诸如多层次和网络化治理、元治理、本土治理、公民社会参与以及其他具有强大自由和制度血统的其他规范性概念应用于俄罗斯。在这种情况下，俄罗斯可能被称为——例如，与德国和法国一起——作为“后帝国主义民主国家”，隐含着对前缀“后”的预期，以表示莫斯科对民主而非帝国主义的承诺， 未来。从这个角度来看，