Abstract: The research object is federalism as a form of state structure which has the right to solve the state problems of ethnic, national, socio-economic, and political and legal character. The research subject is the search for a state structure model in contemporary Russia leading to the transformation of federalist relations. The paper exposes the essence of federalism, and the problems of federalist relations development in modern Russia. The author studies various approaches to defining the state structure model in the Russian Federation, striving to find the optimal one, since it touches upon the issues dealing with state and national security. The author outlines the following issues: sovereignty, Russian regions’ independence, the aspiration of many peoples and ethnic groups for national consolidation, and socio-economically determined integration processes in the Russian society. The author carries out the analysis of the problems coming from the specific interests of peoples, which manifest themselves during the ongoing reforms, and the necessity to coordinate them, to search for compromises in the process of coordinated implementation of economic, political, and social reforms on the whole territory of the Russian Federation.