Fiscal Federalism in Russia: A Canadian Perspective

This paper does not provide a detailed examination of the complex and evolving characteristics of the Russian Federation. Its aim is rather simply to consider some of the key instrumental components of intergovernmental fiscal relations that arise in the Russian Federation – expenditures, revenues, transfers, borrowing, and institutional arrangements – in comparison both to Canada's lengthy experience with federalism and to a framework developed on the basis of previous work on fiscal federalism in a variety of transitional and developing countries. Unsurprisingly, from either of these perspectives fiscal federalism in Russia seems clearly to be a work still in progress.