In Post-Soviet Russia new federal model was established in a very short time. It negatively influenced its future functioning. With the aim of precluding the secessionism of certain federal subjects, government decided to solve this situation by signing special bilateral agreements with part of them. Those agreements were breaching Russian Constitution adopted in 1993 but on the other hand, they brought a desired stability to the whole country. In my thesis I described a legal model of the federal arrangement and observed the differences between legal theory and practice, based on the agreements, mentioned above. Vladimir Putin, who became Russian president in 2000, started to reform federal system significantly. The main pillar of the reform was comprised by a bunch of federal laws adopted predominantly at the beginning of his presidency. Those laws were created in order to revise the advantages which were given to regions in the bilateral agreements. Legal theory and practice came closer together again. Is it possible to say that Russia set out on the journey of rule of law? My thesis will describe this development from the legal point of view. As the case study on which I want to demonstrate my conclusions I chose the Republic of Tatarstan.