The study discusses the gubernatorial election models that have been established in terms of the political development of federal relations in modern Russia. The purpose of the research is to assess the performance of these models from the perspective of the current central and regional authorities and the electorate. The following methods are used in the study: the institutional and functional analysis, the comparative analysis of secondary statistics, and the analysis of the laws and regulations related to gubernatorial elections. The research reveals the contradictions between the desire of the central and regional authorities of the Russian Federation to maintain political stability and the protest sentiments of the electorate. The authors identify the most effective mechanisms that remove or mitigate these contradictions. Several hypotheses that have been previously posed are confirmed, which explains the relevance of the subject matter. The use and analysis of the latest statistics determine the scientific novelty of the study.