Editing Openai/69692e77-1740-8006-8e16-055fc2ba066e (section)

===== 📌 The Context: Russia–Tatarstan Power-Sharing Agreements =====

In the early post-Soviet period, Moscow negotiated treaties with republics like Tatarstan and others to distribute powers within the newly formed federation. These treaties had political and legal significance in the 1990s, when Russia’s federal structure was still being defined. Interfax.ru<ref>{{cite web|title=Interfax.ru|url=https://www.interfax.ru/russia/575603|publisher=interfax.ru|access-date=2026-01-16}}</ref>

By 2017, the treaty with Tatarstan was expiring. Kirienko was explaining — to local politicians and officials in Kazan — that the modern Russian state does not rely on treaties between the federal center and subjects as the basis of its legal or constitutional status. Instead, he emphasized, state authority derives from the Constitution and federal law, not from a patchwork of bilateral power-sharing agreements. Interfax.ru<ref>{{cite web|title=Interfax.ru|url=https://www.interfax.ru/russia/575603|publisher=interfax.ru|access-date=2026-01-16}}</ref>