Standing at the intersection between "defederation" and "disintegration", Richard Sakwa's "ideal typical" model of "republicanization" aptly captures the highly fluid nature of Russian federalism (Sakwa, 1999). Fundamentally, republicanization is a stage that falls short of independent statehood but incorporates the aspirations of shared political sovereignty and equal status with the centre. Republicanization lies somewhere along the continuum between federalism and confederalism, autonomy and unity. In this chapter I examine republicanization in practice and discuss the many ways in which this new "ideal type" deepens our understanding of regional politics.