The article signifies an attempt of discovering the reasons impeding institutionalization of efficient self-government in Russia. Proceeding from the thesis that reforming local self-government means none other but repartition of power between the elite and the people, of which the outcome is always determined by the different interest groups’ relation of forces, the author thoroughly analyzes positions of the leading actors in the sphere of local self-government: bureaucracy, political parties, big business, criminal structures, and municipal formations themselves. According to his conclusion, it is the top power echelon, i.e. the President and the group of his associates, that ever was and remains the principal motor of the municipal reform, and therefore it is on the federal center that the future of local self-government in Russia decisively depends.