The Territories of the Russian Federation 2013

Europa Publications, Europa Publications

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135095772
• Edición: 14

This excellent reference source brings together hard-to-find information on the eighty-three constituent units of the Russian Federation.

The introduction examines the Russian Federation as a whole, focusing on the evolution of the relationship between the central state and the regions, followed by a chronology, demographic and economic statistics, and a review of the Federal Government.

The second section comprises territorial surveys, with a chapter on each of Russia's federal subjects, each of which includes a current map. The third section comprises a select bibliography of books. The fourth section features a series of indexes, listing the territories alphabetically, by Federal Okrug and Economic Area.

PART ONE

Introduction

Russian Federalism and Electoral Dynamics Since 1991

DR INGA SAIKKONEN

INTRODUCTION

The Russian Federation was formed after the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991. The new state had to undergo a difficult transition, where the political, economic and governance systems had to be reformed simultaneously. The Russian Federation, or Russia, is a multi-national state, and the complex ethno-territorial legacies of the former USSR continue to influence federal dynamics to this day. The Russian Federation now comprises 83 ‘federal subjects’ (territories): 21 republics, nine krais (provinces), 46 oblasts (regions), one autonomous oblast and four autonomous okrugs (districts), as well as two cities of federal status, Moscow and St Petersburg. The republics and the autonomous okrugs (AOs) are ethnically defined regions, although in practice the share of the titular nationality living in a given region varies widely. The oblasts and krais are ethnically predominantly Russian.

As occurs in any large federation, the Russian authorities have had to contend with the dilemmas of federalism: how to provide effective governance without too much internal differentiation, while still maintaining the positive aspects of devolved governance, such as the ability to accommodate very divergent local constituencies. In the 1990s Russia had a very weak centre and an increasingly fragmented federation, whereas the federal reforms implemented under President Vladimir Putin after 2000 have resulted in the bringing about of a de facto unitary state. The ebbs and flows of federalism have also been reflected in the sub-national political institutions: the introduction of a system of gubernatorial elections from 1996 onwards to all territories confirmed the ‘regionalization’ of political power in Russia, while the gradual centralization of the political regime was reinforced after the abolition of these elections in 2004.

THE RUSSIAN FEDERAL SYSTEM AFTER 1991

Perestroika Reforms and the Disintegration of the Soviet State

The Russian Federation emerged in 1991 as the successor state to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the largest Union Republic of the USSR. Under its 1978 Constitution, the RSFSR had a complex internally ‘federated’ administrative system, with 16 autonomous republics (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics—ASSRs), six krais, 49 oblasts, 10 autonomous okrugs, five autonomous oblasts, and two cities (Moscow and Leningrad) that were separate from their surrounding regions. The 1978 Constitution accorded the ASSRs a higher constitutional status than the other units, although until the latter stages of the perestroika (restructuring) reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s this status was largely nominal.

Despite its federal form, the USSR was in practice a unitary state, which was held together by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Soviet state institutions. In 1990, however, the nominally federal structures gained real substance, as an unintended consequence of the perestroika (restructuring) reforms. Gorbachev, who had become CPSU General Secretary in 1985, sought to change the Soviet political institutions from 1987 onwards in order to rejuvenate the ruling party and to generate support for his reform policies. The political reforms centred on expanding the role of elected assemblies, soviets. In 1989 partially contested elections (where two-thirds of the seats were elected) were held to the all-Union legislature, the Congress of People’s Deputies, which subsequently elected a Supreme Soviet. In March 1990 fully contested elections were held to both the republican and local legislatures in the Russian Federation. These elections had an important effect in bringing about the disintegration of the power monopoly of the CPSU (which was, moreover, formally rescinded later in the year), as regional political élites began to orientate towards their local constituencies. Despite the gains of the liberal movement, the Democratic Party of Russia, in some urban areas, in many cases former CPSU élites were elected to major posts in the ‘new’ legislatures. Power shifted gradually to the executive committees of regional soviets (ispolkomy).

Together with other perestroika political reforms, the elections gave incentives to secessionist policies not only in the Union Republics, such as the Baltic states, but also within the RSFSR. In 1990 the ASSRs within Russia were given the same constitutional status as the Union Republics. The declaration of sovereignty by the RSFSR in 1990 led also to several ASSRs within Russia to declare themselves as sovereign states. The ‘parade of sovereignties’ became embroiled in the power struggle between Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, who came to greater prominence when he was elected as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in 1990. Yeltsin was later elected the first President of the RSFSR in June 1991. Yeltsin encouraged the republican leaders in their aspirations for greater sovereignty, pitting them against Gorbachev and the Union leadership.

The New Federal System

After the dissolution of the USSR, the legal status of the Russian federal system was unclear, as the 1978 Constitution had yet not been replaced, although it had been modified on several occasions after 1989. In 1992 three Federation Treaties were signed between the federal centre and the different constituent units to provide legal foundations for the Russian federal system. The constitutional rights of the republics were retained in the Federation Treaties. The tensions between the executive and the legislature, and the difficult constitutional negotiations led to a serious political crisis, which was eventually resolved by Yeltsin by force. The new Constitution of the Russian Federation was ratified in a controversial referendum in December 1993. It established Russia as a federation, with 89 ‘subjects’ of equal status, but did not determine exactly the division of power between different levels of government (the federal, regional and local levels). Without a clear constitutional and legal framework, Russian federalism continued to be asymmetrical and shaped by informal practices and by presidential decrees.

The respective areas of power between the centre and the regions were later clarified in a series of bilateral treaties, which were signed directly between the federal centre and 42 of the regional executives without being coded in either federal or regional legislation. The treaties determined the federal and regional areas of competence in taxation, the management and control of natural resources, in the organization of education and health services as well as cultural and linguistic policies. The bilateral treaties exacerbated the arbitrary and negotiated nature of the Russian federal system, but also stabilized the system in a rather difficult transitional period, and quelled the pressures towards greater sovereignty and secession in the republics (other than the Chechen Republic—Chechnya).

Executive and Legislative Elections in the Regions

The legacies of Soviet ethno-federalism shaped Russian sub-national institutional development too. Under the 1993 Russian Constitution, the republics were permitted to draft their own constitutions (konstitutsii) and design their own government institutions. The other regions—the oblasts, krais and AOs—were subjugated to the federal centre, and were only able to draft governing ‘charters’ (ustavy). The republics either followed the federal presidential model, or retained the Soviet-style legislative institutions, adopting presidential rule later. Mintimer Shaimiyev was elected as the President of one of the most significant of the ethnic republics, Tatarstan, at the time of the Russian Federation presidential election in June 1991; this was followed by presidential elections in Chechnya (then formally part of a Checheno-Ingush Republic), the Mari Republic (now the Republic of Marii-El), the Yakut Republic (now the Republic of Sakha—Yakutiya) and the Mordoviyan Republic (now the Republic of Mordoviya). In Moscow and St Petersburg cities, two reformist politicians, Anatolii Sobchak and Gavriil Popov, respectively, were elected as chief executives or mayors in 1991 (in St Petersburg the formal title was changed to governor in 1996).

Elections for chief executives were also planned for the regions other than republics in the early 1990s, but in November 1991 the Congress of People’s Deputies established a moratorium on elections, fearing that they would bring members of the anti-reformist opposition to power. In the confused political situation the Congress granted Yeltsin several emergency powers, including one to appoint regional governors. President Yeltsin began to nominate regional ‘governors’ as unelected heads of the executive, to be confirmed by the regional legislatures. Presidential representatives were also appointed to the regions to oversee the work of the governors, although in practice their capacities for oversight were often limited and they were subordinated to the regional regimes.

Regional élites lobbied actively in the federal legislature for new elections, but these were postponed by successive presidential decrees until 1995. Only in a few cases, when the regional legislature failed to endorse the gubernatorial nomination of the president, were gubernatorial elections held. In 1995, in order to gain the backing of the regional élites in the desperately close federal presidential elections scheduled for mid-1996, President Yeltsin finally agreed to the holding of gubernatorial elections. In 1996 elections for chief executives took place in most of the regions. The gubernatorial elections were effectively a ‘referendum round’ on Yeltsin’s administration and the political reforms, and many of the incumbents appointed by him were defeated. The regional institutional systems were harmonized in the law ‘On the General Principles of Organization of the Legislative (Representative) and Executive Organs of State Power of the Subjects of the Russian Federation’, which entered into effect in October 1999. According to the law, all regions (including the republics) were to have directly elected executives and legislatures. Of the remaining republics with ‘parliamentary’ systems, the Udmurt Republic adopted presidential rule with its first presidential election in 2000, while the multi-ethnic Republic of Dagestan continued to have an indirectly elected executive.

The new 1993 constitutional order also brought about the ‘executivization’ of political power at the regional level. After the conflict between the executive and the legislature in 1993, Yeltsin issued a decree that the regional soviets be disbanded, calling new elections in 1993 and 1994 for new regional legislative assemblies (although these provisions were only ‘recommended’ for the republics). The size and the scope for policy-making of the legislatures were reduced, and the authorities of the chief executives correspondingly increased. However, until 1996 the legislatures were the only democratically elected institutions in many territories, and frequently waged intense conflict with the regional executives over the formation of the constitutional charters and other founding legislation. However, the direct gubernatorial elections from 1996 meant that the chief executives became dominant in regional politics.

Gubernatorial Elections and the Russian Federal Regime

The system of direct elections made the governors autonomous political actors, not dependent on the federal centre (especially if they possessed sufficient power resources of their own). From 1996 onwards the Federation Council comprised the governors and speakers of the regional legislatures, allowing governors significant participation in the adoption (or vetoing) of federal legi...