Annotation

This paper points out systemic conflicts and deficiencies in the legal definitions of “state service” and “municipal service”, which obscure the true nature of public services. The study's findings indicate that the fundamental definitions in Federal Law No. 210-FZ are merely formal, concentrating on identifying who delivers services rather than their essential. The central problem examined in the article is the absence of universal criteria that would make it possible to unambiguously qualify a specific function of a public authority as a public service. The negative consequences of this circumstance are demonstrated by the example of the field of physical culture and sports. The paper also describes a number of discrete problems in the system for providing state and municipal services in the aforementioned domain.