Leksin Ivan
The article deals with some unexplored legal issues of theory and practice of territorial organization of the state. The author reconsiders traditional approach to the definition of federal and regional states (which implies such inductive features, as regional symmetry or asymmetry, as characteristics of federal or regional state in general). In order to distinguish between notions, the author draws direct attention to the conceptual quality of federation, regarding practical features of specific political systems solely as means ensuring this quality. The results of the research allow evaluating contemporary Russia as regional, but not federal state.
Keywords: territorial structure of state, federal state, regional state, constituent unit of federation, territorial entity, autonomy.