Didn't want to post earlier because I don't live in Russia, but no one did it, so:

Russia is still Federation. It has different forms of internal state subjects. Some are under federal control, some are almost independent republics (they have more rights than states in the USA in some spheres).


Each federal subject belongs to one of the following types:
21 republics (республика, respublika) — nominally autonomous, each has its own constitution and legislature; is represented by the federal government in international affairs; is meant to be home to a specific ethnic minority. De-facto they have wide range of relations towards federal government - from semi-independent to semi-federal district. Have their own Presidents, Ministers and Parliaments.
46 oblasts (provinces; область, oblast) — most common type of federal subjects with federally appointed governor and locally elected legislature. Commonly named after their administrative centers. Usual state regions under central government control.
9 krais (territories; край, kraĭ)—essentially the same as oblasts. The title "territory" is historic, originally given because they were once considered frontier regions. Unitary state district with some elements of ethnic traditional ruling forms. (For example cossacks). Can have non-standard structures (kinda rangers in Texas)
1 autonomous oblast (autonomous province; автономная область, avtonomnaya oblast)—the only autonomous oblast is the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Today the only one left and has no sense because of Israel existence and low population.
4 autonomous okrugs (autonomous districts; автономный округ, avtonomnyĭ okrug) — with substantial or predominant ethnic minority. Northern low populated regions kinda Alaska. Can have ethnic ruling forms because of tribalism.
2 federal cities (город федерального значения, gorod federal'nogo znacheniya) — major cities that function as separate regions. The same as oblast but one city aglomeration with some local differences because of urbanization.

Federal subjects of Russia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some republics have almost de-facto independent status with their own foreign policy and ambassadors.
For example Caucasus republics. They have relations with Muslim countries with their own ambassadors. The most radical one is Chechnya. Although federal forces "won" the war it looks more like vassalization with more acceptable local warband. And tensions today grow again. Dagestan and Karachay-Cherkessia are at the pre-second chechen war condition.

Tatar republics Tatarstan and Bashkiria are using more political way but still claim "independence". For example when State Union between Belarus and Russia was formed Tatarstan claimed to be third full-powered side of the deal.

The main differences as I see (from the USA) that Russia has central police/courts/investigators structure. More federal districts. And Parliament (legislatives) has secondary role to President and Ministers (executors). Parliament has more routine role of making usual laws. Also it is political zoo/arena.

About Medvedev and Putin. When Putin settled him to the President's chair he was nobody, only public speaking head and foreign ambassador. Putin concentrated into internal problems. Today Medvedev belongs to his political/economical clan and they have some tensions with Putin's clan.

So Russia is semi-unitary state (for Russian population in major) but still is federation because of other nations.

P.S. Before 2008 Russia consisted of 89 subjects, but because of depopulation and other reasons some autonomic subjects were incorporated into regions for unification. I think Jewish Autonomic Oblast is the main candidate to disappear during next reform whenever it will be performed (too small, 95% of population are Russians).