As opposed to the local government rules laid down in the 1993 constitution, which seemed to be favoured by President Jelcin (in power: 1991-1999), who was also the chairman of the newly formed Union of Local Governments from June 1997, the 2020 constitutional amendment represents a weakening of the local government system, which was also criticised by the Venice Commission in their report. The 1991 Local Government Law was followed by another one in 2003. According to Russian constitutional law, a federal ministry or other federal administrative body may be established by the Prime Minister upon the proposal of the President. However, local governments are not included in this category. In addition to member republics and territories, local governments can also issue decrees. The current COVID pandemic and the war situation in the country have also left their mark on the operation of local governments (receiving Russians fleeing Ukraine, local ‘war auxiliary’ tasks, etc.). In addition, the historical antecedents and the specific solutions of the two local government systems are presented as the first phase of a larger, longer research comparing the Chinese and Russian systems, planned for many years, also delving into the history of Sino-Russian (and before that Soviet-Russian, as well as imperial and tsarist times) relations, taking into account other problems raised by science (the role and place of local-territorial governments, the ‘resilient’ or delayed reactions of the legal system).2