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The federal subjects of Russia, also referred to as the subjects of the Russian Federation (Russian: субъекты Российской Федерации, subyekty Rossiyskoy Federatsii) or simply as the subjects of the federation (Russian: субъекты федерации subyekty federatsii), are the constituent entities of Russia, its top-level political divisions according to the Constitution of Russia.^[1] Since March 18, 2014, the Russian Federation constitutionally has consisted of 85 federal subjects,^[2] although the two most recently added subjects are recognized by most states as part of Ukraine.^[3][4]

According to the Russian Constitution, the Russian Federation consists of republics, krais, oblasts, cities of federal importance, an autonomous oblast and autonomous okrugs, all of which are equal subjects of the Russian Federation.^[5] Three Russian cities of federal importance (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Sevastopol) have a status of both city and separate federal subject which comprises other cities and towns (Zelenograd, Troitsk, Kronstadt, Kolpino, etc.) within each federal city—keeping older structures of postal addresses. In 1993 the Russian Federation comprised 89 federal subjects. By 2008 the number of federal subjects had decreased to 83 because of several mergers. In 2014 Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea became the 84th and 85th federal subjects of Russia.

Every federal subject has its own head, a parliament, and a constitutional court. Each federal subject has its own constitution and legislation. Subjects have equal rights in relations with federal government bodies.^[6][7] The federal subjects have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council, the upper house of the Federal Assembly. They do, however, differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy (asymmetric federalism).

Post-Soviet Russia formed during the history of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic within the USSR and didn't change at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1992 during so-called "parade of sovereignties", separatist sentiments and the War of Laws within Russia, the Russian regions signed the Federation Treaty (Russian: Федеративный договор Federativny Dogovor),^[8] establishing and regulating the current inner composition of Russia, based on the division of authorities and powers among Russian government bodies and government bodies of constituent entities. The Federation Treaty was included in the text of the 1978 Constitution of the Russian SFSR.^{[citation needed]} The current Constitution of Russia, adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993, came into force on December 25, 1993 and abolished the model of the Soviet system of government introduced in 1918 by Vladimir Lenin and based on the right to secede from the country and on unlimited sovereignty of federal subjects (in practice it^{[clarification needed]} was never allowed), which conflicts with country's integrity and federal laws. The new constitution eliminated a number of legal conflicts, reserved the rights of the regions, introduced local self-government and didn't grant the Soviet-era right to secede from the country. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the political system became de jure closer to other modern federal states with a republican form of government in the world.^{[citation needed]} In the 2000s, following the policy of Vladimir Putin and of the United Russia party (dominant party in all federal subjects), the Russian parliament changed the distribution of tax revenues, reduced the number of elections in the regions and gave more power to the federal authorities.

There are several groupings of Russian regions:

• Federal subjects should not be confused with the eight federal districts which are not subdivisions of Russia — the federal districts are much larger and each encompasses many federal subjects. Federal districts were created by Executive Order of the President of Russia especially for presidential envoys.


• 
  Time zones are defined by the Order of the federal government.


• The composition of judicial districts is defined by the federal law "On arbitration courts".


• 
  Economic regions are administered by the Ministry of Economic Development.


• The Ministry of Defense uses the terminology of Military districts.

Terminology

An official government translation of the Constitution of Russia in Article 5 states: "1. The Russian Federation shall consist of republics, krays, oblasts, cities of federal significance, an autonomous oblast and autonomous okrugs, which shall have equal rights as constituent entities of the Russian Federation."^[9]

Another translation of the Constitution of Russia gives for article 65: "The Russian Federation includes the following subjects of the Russian Federation:".^[10]

How to translate the Russian term was discussed during the 49th annual American Translators Association conference in Orlando, in which Tom Fennel, a freelance translator, argued that the term "constituent entity of the Russian Federation" should be preferred to "subject".^[11] This recommendation is also shared by Tamara Nekrasova, Head of Translation Department, Goltsblat BLP, who in her "Traps & Mishaps in Legal Translation" presentation in Paris stated that "constituent entity of the Russian Federation is more appropriate than subject of the Russian Federation (subject would be OK for a monarchy)".^[12]

Types

Each federal subject belongs to one of the following types:

List

Code	Name	Capital/Administrative centre[a]	Flag	Coat of arms	Federal district	Economic region	Area (km2)[14]	Population [15]	Year established
01	Adygea, Republic of	Maykop			Southern	North Caucasus	7,600	447,109	1922
02	Bashkortostan, Republic of	Ufa			Volga	Ural	143,600	4,104,336	1919
03	Buryatia, Republic of	Ulan-Ude			Far Eastern	East Siberian	351,300	981,238	1923
04	Altai Republic	Gorno-Altaysk			Siberian	West Siberian	92,600	202,947	1922
05	Dagestan, Republic of	Makhachkala			North Caucasian	North Caucasus	50,300	2,576,531	1921
06	Ingushetia, Republic of	Magas (Largest city: Nazran)			North Caucasian	North Caucasus	4,000	467,294	1992
07	Kabardino-Balkar Republic	Nalchik			North Caucasian	North Caucasus	12,500	901,494	1936
08	Kalmykia, Republic of	Elista			Southern	Volga	76,100	292,410	1957
09	Karachay-Cherkess Republic	Cherkessk			North Caucasian	North Caucasus	14,100	439,470	1957
10	Karelia, Republic of	Petrozavodsk			Northwestern	Northern	172,400	716,281	1956
11	Komi Republic	Syktyvkar			Northwestern	Northern	415,900	1,018,674	1921
12	Mari El Republic	Yoshkar-Ola			Volga	Volga-Vyatka	23,200	727,979	1920
13	Mordovia, Republic of	Saransk			Volga	Volga-Vyatka	26,200	888,766	1930
14	Sakha (Yakutia) Republic	Yakutsk			Far Eastern	Far Eastern	3,103,200	949,280	1922
15	North Ossetia-Alania, Republic of	Vladikavkaz			North Caucasian	North Caucasus	8,000	710,275	1924
16	Tatarstan, Republic of	Kazan			Volga	Volga	68,000	3,779,265	1920
17	Tuva Republic	Kyzyl			Siberian	East Siberian	170,500	305,510	1944
18	Udmurt Republic	Izhevsk			Volga	Ural	42,100	1,570,316	1920
19	Khakassia, Republic of	Abakan			Siberian	East Siberian	61,900	546,072	1930
20	Chechen Republic	Grozny			North Caucasian	North Caucasus	15,300	1,103,686	1991
21	Chuvash Republic	Cheboksary			Volga	Volga-Vyatka	18,300	1,313,754	1920
22	Altai Krai	Barnaul			Siberian	West Siberian	169,100	2,607,426	1937
75	Zabaykalsky Krai	Chita			Far Eastern	East Siberian	431,500	1,155,346	2008
41	Kamchatka Krai	Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky			Far Eastern	Far Eastern	472,300	358,801	2007
23	Krasnodar Krai	Krasnodar			Southern	North Caucasus	76,000	5,125,221	1937
24	Krasnoyarsk Krai	Krasnoyarsk			Siberian	East Siberian	2,339,700	2,966,042	1934
59	Perm Krai	Perm			Volga	Ural	160,600	2,819,421	2005
25	Primorsky Krai	Vladivostok			Far Eastern	Far Eastern	165,900	2,071,210	1938
26	Stavropol Krai	Stavropol			North Caucasian	North Caucasus	66,500	2,735,139	1934
27	Khabarovsk Krai	Khabarovsk			Far Eastern	Far Eastern	788,600	1,436,570	1938
28	Amur Oblast	Blagoveshchensk			Far Eastern	Far Eastern	363,700	902,844	1932
29	Arkhangelsk Oblast	Arkhangelsk			Northwestern	Northern	587,400	1,336,539	1937
30	Astrakhan Oblast	Astrakhan			Southern	Volga	44,100	1,005,276	1943
31	Belgorod Oblast	Belgorod			Central	Central Black Earth	27,100	1,511,620	1954
32	Bryansk Oblast	Bryansk			Central	Central	34,900	1,378,941	1944
33	Vladimir Oblast	Vladimir			Central	Central	29,000	1,523,990	1944
34	Volgograd Oblast	Volgograd			Southern	Volga	113,900	2,699,223	1937
35	Vologda Oblast	Vologda (Largest city: Cherepovets)			Northwestern	Northern	145,700	1,269,568	1937
36	Voronezh Oblast	Voronezh			Central	Central Black Earth	52,400	2,378,803	1934
37	Ivanovo Oblast	Ivanovo			Central	Central	21,800	1,148,329	1936
38	Irkutsk Oblast	Irkutsk			Siberian	East Siberian	767,900	2,581,705	1937
39	Kaliningrad Oblast	Kaliningrad			Northwestern	Kaliningrad	15,100	955,281	1946
40	Kaluga Oblast	Kaluga			Central	Central	29,900	1,041,641	1944
42	Kemerovo Oblast	Kemerovo (Largest city: Novokuznetsk)			Siberian	West Siberian	95,500	2,899,142	1943
43	Kirov Oblast	Kirov			Volga	Volga-Vyatka	120,800	1,503,529	1934
44	Kostroma Oblast	Kostroma			Central	Central	60,100	736,641	1944
45	Kurgan Oblast	Kurgan			Ural	Ural	71,000	1,019,532	1943
46	Kursk Oblast	Kursk			Central	Central Black Earth	29,800	1,235,091	1934
47	Leningrad Oblast	Largest city: Gatchina[b]			Northwestern	Northwestern	84,500	1,669,205	1927
48	Lipetsk Oblast	Lipetsk			Central	Central Black Earth	24,100	1,213,499	1954
49	Magadan Oblast	Magadan			Far Eastern	Far Eastern	461,400	182,726	1953
50	Moscow Oblast	Largest city: Balashikha[c]			Central	Central	44,300[16]	6,618,538	1929
51	Murmansk Oblast	Murmansk			Northwestern	Northern	144,900	892,534	1938
52	Nizhny Novgorod Oblast	Nizhny Novgorod			Volga	Volga-Vyatka	76,900	3,524,028	1936
53	Novgorod Oblast	Veliky Novgorod			Northwestern	Northwestern	55,300	694,355	1944
54	Novosibirsk Oblast	Novosibirsk			Siberian	West Siberian	178,200	2,692,251	1937
55	Omsk Oblast	Omsk			Siberian	West Siberian	139,700	2,079,220	1934
56	Orenburg Oblast	Orenburg			Volga	Ural	124,000	2,179,551	1934
57	Oryol Oblast	Oryol			Central	Central	24,700	860,262	1937
58	Penza Oblast	Penza			Volga	Volga	43,200	1,452,941	1939
60	Pskov Oblast	Pskov			Northwestern	Northwestern	55,300	760,810	1944
61	Rostov Oblast	Rostov-on-Don			Southern	North Caucasus	100,800	4,404,013	1937
62	Ryazan Oblast	Ryazan			Central	Central	39,600	1,227,910	1937
63	Samara Oblast	Samara			Volga	Volga	53,600	3,239,737	1928
64	Saratov Oblast	Saratov			Volga	Volga	100,200	2,668,310	1936
65	Sakhalin Oblast	Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk			Far Eastern	Far Eastern	87,100	546,695	1947
66	Sverdlovsk Oblast	Yekaterinburg			Ural	Ural	194,800	4,486,214	1935
67	Smolensk Oblast	Smolensk			Central	Central	49,800	1,049,574	1937
68	Tambov Oblast	Tambov			Central	Central Black Earth	34,300	1,178,443	1937
69	Tver Oblast	Tver			Central	Central	84,100	1,471,459	1935
70	Tomsk Oblast	Tomsk			Siberian	West Siberian	316,900	1,046,039	1944
71	Tula Oblast	Tula			Central	Central	25,700	1,675,758	1937
72	Tyumen Oblast	Tyumen			Ural	West Siberian	1,435,200	3,264,841	1944
73	Ulyanovsk Oblast	Ulyanovsk			Volga	Volga	37,300	1,382,811	1943
74	Chelyabinsk Oblast	Chelyabinsk			Ural	Ural	87,900	3,603,339	1934
76	Yaroslavl Oblast	Yaroslavl			Central	Central	36,400	1,367,398	1936
77	Moscow	—			Central	Central	2,511	10,382,754
78	Saint Petersburg	—			Northwestern	Northwestern	1,439	4,662,547
79	Jewish Autonomous Oblast	Birobidzhan			Far Eastern	Far Eastern	36,000	190,915	1934
83	Nenets Autonomous Okrug	Naryan-Mar			Northwestern	Northern	176,700	41,546	1929
86	Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra	Khanty-Mansiysk (Largest city: Surgut)			Ural	West Siberian	523,100	1,432,817	1930
87	Chukotka Autonomous Okrug	Anadyr			Far Eastern	Far Eastern	737,700	53,824	1930
89	Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug	Salekhard (Largest city: Noyabrsk)			Ural	West Siberian	750,300	507,006	1930
82	Crimea, Republic of[d]	Simferopol			Southern[17][18]	North Caucasus	26,964[19]	1,966,801[20]	2014
92	Sevastopol[d]	—			Southern[17][18]	North Caucasus	864[21]	379,200[21]	2014

b. ^{^} According to Article 13 of the Charter of Leningrad Oblast, the governing bodies of the oblast are located in the city of St. Petersburg. However, St. Petersburg is not officially named to be the administrative center of the oblast.

c. ^{^} According to Article 24 of the Charter of Moscow Oblast, the governing bodies of the oblast are located in the city of Moscow and throughout the territory of Moscow Oblast. However, Moscow is not officially named to be the administrative center of the oblast.

d. ^{^} Not recognized internationally as a part of Russia.

e. ^{^} In February 2000, the former code of 20 for the Chechen Republic was cancelled and replaced with code 95. License plate production was suspended due to the Chechen Wars, causing numerous issues, which in turn forced the region to use a new code.

Lists of federal subjects

• List of federal subjects of Russia by GRP


• List of federal subjects of Russia by incidence of substance abuse


• List of federal subjects of Russia by GDP per capita


• List of federal subjects of Russia by murder rate


• List of federal subjects of Russia by life expectancy


• List of federal subjects of Russia by population


• List of federal subjects of Russia by total fertility rate


• List of federal subjects of Russia by Human Development Index


• List of federal subjects of Russia by unemployment rate


• List of current heads of federal subjects of Russia


• Forest cover by federal subject in Russia


• ISO 3166-2:RU

Mergers, splits and internal territorial changes

Map of the federal subjects of Russia highlighting those that merged in the first decade of the 21st century (in yellow), and those whose merger has been discussed in the same decade (in orange)

Starting in 2005, some of the federal subjects were merged into larger territories. In this process, six very sparsely populated subjects (comprising in total 0.3% of the population of Russia) were integrated into more populated subjects, with the hope that the economic development of those territories would benefit from the much larger means of their neighbours. The merging process was finished on 1 March 2008. No new mergers have been planned since March 2008. The six territories became "administrative-territorial regions with special status". They have large proportions of minorities, with Russians being a majority only in three of them. Four of those territories have a second official language in addition to Russian: Buryat (in two of the merged territories), Komi-Permian, Koryak. This is an exception: all the other official languages of Russia (other than Russian) are set by the Constitutions of its constituent Republics (Mordovia, Chechnya, Dagestan etc.). The status of the "administrative-territorial regions with special status" has been a subject of criticism because it does not appear in the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

In addition to those six territories that entirely ceased to be subjects of the Russian Federation and were downgraded to territories with special status, another three subjects have a status of subject but are simultaneously part of a more populated subject:

• The Nenets_Autonomous_Okrug (2010 population of 42090) is a subject since 1993, but is also, according to its Constitution, a part of Arkhangelsk Oblast
  


• 
  Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug obtained autonomy in 1977, but is simultaneously part of Tyumen Oblast
  


• 
  Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug obtained the status of subject in 1992 (after obtaining autonomy in 1977), but is also part of Tyumen Oblast.

With an estimated population of 49348 as of 2018, Chukotka is currently the least populated subject of Russia that is not part of a more populated subject. It was separated from Magadan Oblast in 1993. Chukotka is one of the richest subjects of Russia (with a GRP per capita equivalent to that of Australia) and therefore does not fit in the pattern of merging a subject to benefit from the economic dynamism of the neighbour.

In 1992, Ingushetia separated from Chechnya, both to stay away from the growing violence in Chechnya and as a bid to obtain the Eastern part of Northern Ossetia (it did not work: the Chechen conflict spread violence to Ingushetia, and North Ossetia retained its Prigorodny_District). Those two Muslim republics, populated in vast majority (95%+) by closely related Vainakh people, speaking Vainakhish languages, remain the two poorest subjects of Russia, with the GRP per capita of Ingushetia being equivalent to that of Iraq. According to 2016 statistics, however they are also the safest regions of Russia, and also have the lowest alcohol consumption, with alcohol poisoning at least 40 times lower than the national average.^[22][23]

Until 1994, Sokolsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast was part of Ivanovo Oblast.

In 2011-2012, the territory of Moscow increased by 140% (to 2511 km²) by acquiring part of Moscow Oblast.

In 2016, Russian senators suggested two new possible mergers (not appearing on the above map), but with no active step taken so far.

See also

• Subdivisions of Russia


• Federal districts of Russia


• Economic regions of Russia


• History of the administrative division of Russia


• Flags of the federal subjects of Russia


• Republics of the Soviet Union


• Flags of the Soviet Republics

References

Notes

Sources

• 
  12 декабря 1993 г. «Конституция Российской Федерации», в ред. Федерального конституционного закона №7-ФКЗ от 30 декабря 2008 г. Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Российская газета", №237, 25 декабря 1993 г. (December 12, 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation, as amended by the Federal Constitutional Law #7-FKZ of December 30, 2008. Effective as of the official publication date.).