The article presents the results of an empirical checking of three hypotheses relevant to preconditions of financial autonomy of local self-government in Russia’s regions. The checking was carried out by methods of tabular grouping and correlation analysis. The research has demonstrated that the level of self-government’s financial autonomy depends on the degree of urbanization of a given subject of the RF. The hypothesis of the level of financial autonomy being influenced by local self-government’s territorial organization has also found certain corroboration. However, contrary to initial assumptions following from normative theory of democracy, a direct correlation between the degree of a region’s democratianism and the level of the local self-government’s financial autonomy failed to be revealed. And, what is more, it has been found out that as the democratization index grows, there emerges a tendency of financial autonomy indices going down. As one of possible explanations of this tendency, the author points to the heads of authoritarianish regions having at their disposal informal mechanisms of controlling the local self-government organs’ activities, which mechanisms lessen for them the need to resort to financial levers of exerting pressure.