Federal structure of Russia
The federal structure of Russia looks for in Article 65 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in addition to the central government level 85 federal subjects (including the internationally controversial classification of the peninsula of Crimea located Republic of Crimea and City federal Ranges Sevastopol ) with varying degree of autonomy before that turn into eight federal districts combined are. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the re-establishment of Russia, the borders within the Russian Federation initially remained largely in place, but since 2005 there have been several reforms and changes in the subject structure.
Federal state according to the constitution
In the Tsarist era, Russia was a centralized, unitary state . In Soviet times, the central administration economy ensured strong centralization. At the same time, however, the nationality policy created a federal structure of the USSR based on ethnic principles. After the collapse of the Soviet Union , the Russian government signed a federation treaty with the regions in March 1992, which was signed by the president and central government on the one hand and the heads of almost all regional governments on the other. The respective powers were anchored in it. This division of competencies was then incorporated into the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993. It ensures the distribution of competences and responsibilities between the federal central government and the regions. This is intended to ensure the democratic formation of regional authorities as well as the political and economic autonomy of local self-government .
After uncontrolled decentralization in the course of the 1990s, the state administration was recentralized after 2000. It resulted in an increased political and economic dependence of the regions on the center. The regional and local authorities were again more strongly subordinated to the federal center.
Federation districts
The federal districts are not an additional or even the highest federal level next to or above the federal subjects, but an additional administrative structure: Each federal district is headed by a personal and authorized representative appointed by the President of the Russian Federation , who has a control function over the Heads of federation subjects (usually called governor or president). The historical models are the eight large governorates introduced by Peter I in 1708 , which, however, were divided into many smaller ones with increasing population growth in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The tasks of the presidential representatives in the federal circles, newly created in 2000, include the enforcement of government policy, including the president's personnel policy, the coordination of federal organs in the regions, participation in the regional authorities, the enforcement of presidential decrees and disciplinary reprimands.
Federation subjects
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→ See also: Federation subject
The constitution uses the term “federal subjects” to denote different types of territorial units, such as areas, republics, districts, cities with federal significance, etc.
Russia's 85 federal subjects differ greatly in terms of their population and geographic extent, their resource deposits and the level of their economic development. The regional development strategies in Russia therefore concentrated on the equalization policy. To this end, a transfer system between the central government and the regions was created.
According to the Constitution, all regions are equal members of the Russian Federation. In reality, however, republics rank higher because they have a constitution , while the other regions only have a statute .
The subjects of the federation include (including the internationally controversial classification of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which is part of Ukraine under international law and is located on the Crimean peninsula):
- 22 republics . These have their own constitution and legislation and have the highest degree of internal autonomy within the Russian Federation. Republics have been established for the larger non-Russian peoples and for part of the Crimea. Besides Tatarstan , Chechnya and the Crimea all republics have signed the Federation Treaty of 31 March 1992 with Russia.
- 1 Autonomous Oblast (Avtonomnaya Oblast; Jewish Autonomous Oblast only )
- 4 Autonomous Counties ( Avtonomny Okrug )
- 9 regions ( Krai )
- 46 areas ( oblast )
- 3 cities with subject status ( Moscow , Saint Petersburg , Sevastopol )
Tasks and competencies at regional level
The federal level has around 700 areas of responsibility, while after the centralization reforms under President Putin between 2000 and 2008, around 50 areas of competence remained with the regions. The reforms concerned the enforcement of federal law through the annulment of regional legal acts and the legal and technical supervision of the governors and regional parliaments.
The central government is solely responsible for defense, customs and foreign policy. In other areas such as B. Real estate and use of land, raw materials, water and other resources, in the health system and in taxation, the central government and regional authorities are jointly responsible. Regarding joint powers, the constitution gives little information about the distribution of power between the central government and the regions. In practice this means that these tasks are carried out by the central government. In principle, the regions are allowed to decide on their own income and expenditure within the framework of national tax regulations. However, the income of the regions often does not cover their expenditure needs, so that many regions are dependent on transfer payments from the central government. The regions are allowed to issue debt securities. The regions alone may exercise powers which are neither exclusively delegated to the central government nor jointly exercised by the central government and the regions.
List of federal subjects
Note: The numbers in the table correspond to those in the card.
Changes in the structure of the subject at the federal level
Reforms carried out
- The Perm region emerged on December 1, 2005 from the previous Perm Oblast and the Komi-Permjak Autonomous Okrug . This was the first area consolidation since 1993 .
- The Evenks and Taimyr Autonomous Counties were incorporated into the Krasnoyarsk Territory on January 1, 2007 (referendum on April 17, 2005).
- The Kamchatka Oblast and the Koryak Autonomous Okrug will form the new Kamchatka Region as of July 1, 2007 (referendum of October 23, 2005; 85 percent of the population of the two federal subjects agreed).
- January 1, 2008 has been Autonomous District of Ust-Ordynsker Buryats in the Irkutsk Oblast incorporated (referendum of 16 April 2006).
- On March 1, 2008, the Agin Buryat Autonomous Okrug and Chita Oblast merged to form the Transbaikalia region (Russian Забайкальский край , Sabaikalski krai ) (referendum of March 11, 2007).
- On March 21, 2014, the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea was annexed by Russia. The city of Sevastopol and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (now the Republic of Crimea ) joined Russia as federal subjects (their accession is internationally controversial) and formed their own federal district.
- On July 28, 2016, the separate Crimean Federal District was dissolved and joined to the Southern Federal District.
- On November 3, 2018, the Republic of Buryatia and the Transbaikalia Region moved from the Siberian Federal District to the Far East Federal District.
Proposed reforms
- Incorporation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast and Amur Oblast into the Khabarovsk region
- The Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug amalgamated
- Merger of the Republic of Buryatia with the Transbaikalia region to form a new Baikal region (Baikalski krai)
- Merger of the Republic of Adygea with the Krasnodar Territory
- Merger of the Kemerovo Oblast , the Altai Region and the Altai Republic
- Merger of the Novosibirsk , Omsk and Tomsk oblasts
- Merger of the Tyumen Oblast and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Yamal-Nenets to the Tyumen Region (Tyumenski krai)
- Merger of Murmansk Oblast with the Republic of Karelia
- Merger of the city of Moscow with the Moscow Oblast
- Merger of the city of Saint Petersburg with the Leningrad Oblast
Organization of the federal subjects
Below the regional level, a distinction is made in Russia between rajons and urban districts . The Rajons roughly correspond to the German rural districts , Austrian political districts or Swiss districts . Most of the Rajons are divided into urban and rural communities (corresponding to gorodskoje posselenije and selskoje posselenije ). Rajons, city districts and municipalities do not form independent political levels, but represent subdivisions on administrative-territorial level or the municipal self-government . The latter is the municipalities by Article 12 of the Constitution guarantees, according to the decisions concerning the management of municipal property, the preparation and implementation of the the municipal budget and the determination of local taxes and duties independently. The funds are earmarked for issues of local importance, e.g. B. the maintenance of communal residential property.
Web links
- Federal Agency for Civic Education: Dossier Federalism in Russia
- German-Russian Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK): regional portal
- German-Russian Forum e. V .: Regions.ru
Far East | North Caucasus | Northwest Russia | Siberia | Southern Russia | Urals | Volga | Central Russia
Republics: Adygea | Altai | Bashkortostan | Buryatia | Khakassia | Dagestan | Ingushetia | Kabardino-Balkaria | Kalmykia | Karachay-Cherkessia | Karelia | Komi | Crimea 1 | Mari El | Mordovia | North Ossetia-Alania | Sakha (Yakutia) | Tatarstan | Chechnya | Chuvashia | Tuva | Udmurtia
Regions ( Krai ): Altai | Khabarovsk | Kamchatka | Krasnodar | Krasnoyarsk | Perm | Primorye | Stavropol | Transbaikalia
Areas ( Oblast ): Amur | Arkhangelsk | Astrakhan | Belgorod | Bryansk | Irkutsk | Ivanovo | Yaroslavl | Kaliningrad | Kaluga | Kemerovo | Kirov | Kostroma | Kurgan | Kursk | Leningrad | Lipetsk | Magadan | Moscow | Murmansk | Nizhny Novgorod | Novgorod | Novosibirsk | Omsk | Orenburg | Oryol | Penza | Pskov | Ryazan | Rostov | Sakhalin | Samara | Saratov | Smolensk | Sverdlovsk | Tambov | Tyumen | Tomsk | Chelyabinsk | Tula | Tver | Ulyanovsk | Vladimir | Volgograd | Vologda | Voronezh
Cities with subject status: Moscow | Saint Petersburg | Sevastopol 1
Autonomous Oblasts: Jewish Autonomous Oblast
Autonomous circles : Khanty and Mansi / Ugra | Yamal-Nenets | Nenets | Chukchi
1 Internationally Disputed Areas
Albania | Belgium | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Bulgaria | Denmark | Germany | Estonia | Finland | France | Greece | Ireland | Iceland | Italy | Kazakhstan | Croatia | Latvia | Liechtenstein | Lithuania | Luxembourg | Malta | Moldova | Montenegro | Netherlands | North Macedonia | Norway | Austria | Poland | Portugal | Romania | Russia | San Marino | Sweden | Switzerland | Serbia | Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain | Czech Republic | Turkey | Ukraine | Hungary | United Kingdom | Belarus
Administrative division of the States of:
Africa |
Asia |
Australia and Oceania |
Europe |
North and South America
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Afghanistan | Egypt | Armenia | Azerbaijan | Bahrain | Bangladesh | Bhutan | Brunei | China | Georgia | India | Indonesia | Iraq | Iran | Israel | Japan | Yemen | Jordan | Cambodia | Kazakhstan | Qatar | Kyrgyzstan | Korea, North Korea | Korea, South Korea | Kuwait | Laos | Lebanon | Malaysia | Maldives | Mongolia | Myanmar | Nepal | Oman | East Timor | Pakistan | Philippines | Russia | Saudi Arabia | Singapore | Sri Lanka | Syria | Tajikistan | Thailand | Turkmenistan | Turkey | Uzbekistan | United Arab Emirates | Vietnam | Cyprus
Administrative division of the States of:
Africa |
Asia |
Australia and Oceania |
Europe |
North and South America