The article follows and analyzes modern tendencies of the Russian federalism development, as well as their impact on the constitutional-legal development of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) as a Federative subject. Changes introduced into the Republic’s constitutional legislature are characterized in detail. The aim of the study is to determine the degree of influence of the federal center on the constitutional and legal development of the republic. The study used historical, technical-legal and comparative legal methods. In the article, the modern constitutional-legal development of the Republic is distinguished within two stages: from 1990 to 2000, and from 2000 to the present time. The first stage is characterized by a relative freedom granted to the republic when forming its constitutional space (including its national and territorial organization). Meanwhile, the next one is marked by consistent and nearly complete limitation of its constitutional and legal sovereignty. In today’s Russia a rather pronounced federal interference in constitutional and legal space of the federal subjects could be observed. Consequently, this interference limits the subjects’ freedom in defining the mechanisms of correlation between national governing institutions and establishing their own national and judiciary agencies. The authors of the article believe that such interference impacts the Republic’s constitutional and legal progress in a negative way. As a result, contemporary Russia needs to at least introduce a form of federal governance self-limitation when it comes to federative relations, and hence optimization of constitutional mechanisms which separate federal and regional interests.