The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the maximal (exhaustive) interpretation of nominal phrases cannot be used to support the existence of determiner phrases in Russian. The paper argues that the maximal interpretation of phrases including numerals and possessives arises irrespective of the syntactic position of the possessors. Rather, it should be dealt with as a merely semantic matter and the difference between the maximal and non-maximal interpretations can be reduced to (in)definiteness.