The existence of municipalities is regulated by the Federal Law No. 131-FZ dated 6 October 2003. In accordance with this law, they are divided into 5 main types: rural settlement, urban settlement, municipal district, town Okrug, cities of Federal significance.

The main attributes of the municipality is the presence of local governments, budget and municipal property. Municipal formations exist in the field of force of legislative acts. That is, the law, the local authorities null and void if they contradict legal acts of higher legal force.


Each municipality shall have its Statute. This internal document is the basic law of local importance and is taken either by a vote of the inhabitants of the territorial units or local authorities. Read the Charter of the municipality has the right to every resident. To find it, as a rule, in the libraries of the locality or the Secretariat of the local authorities.

Municipal formations are full participants of civil relations as citizens, and legal entities. Authorized local public authorities, they can represent the interests of education in court and to carry out economic activities in the region.

It should be noted that amendments to the municipal law introduced the sixth type of a municipal formation: inter-settlement. Inter-settlement municipal formation – an Association of several settlements in the region in one territorial municipal unit. This kind is practiced in sparsely populated areas of the Russian Federation.