University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-2005 The process of the enlargement of the Russian regions : economic balancing or landmark of "Kremlinization"? Igor Yurievich Danchenko University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation Danchenko, Igor Yurievich, "The process of the enlargement of the Russian regions : economic balancing or landmark of "Kremlinization"?" (2005). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 310. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/310 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PROCESS OF THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE RUSSIAN REGIONS: ECONOMIC BALANCING OR LANDMARK OF "KREMLINIZATION'? By Igor Yurievich Danchenko B.A., Penn' State University, Russia, 2000 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Political Science University of Louisville, Louisville, KY August 2005 Copyright 2005 by Igor Y. Danchenko All Rights Reserved THE PROCESS OF THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE RUSSIAN REGIONS: ECONOMIC BALANCING OR LANDMARK OF “KREMLINIZATION”? By Igor Y. Danchenko B.A., Perm’ State University, Perm’, Russia, 2000 A Thesis Approved on July 19, 2005 by the following Thesis Committee: Thesis Director ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor Charles E. Ziegler, my Thesis Director and my mentor at the Political Science Department, for his guidance on this project, and for his continuous support throughout my study at the University of Louisville. I would like to thank my Family for making me what I am today, and especially my Liza for her love, and for her help in brainstorming the data for this thesis. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professors Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy for their constructive suggestions and inspiration on this and other projects. Finally, I would like to thank the other members of my Thesis Committee - Professors Bruce Adams and Ronald K. Vogel, and my Professors at the Political Science Department of the University of Louisville - Julie M. Bunck, Tricia Gray, Roger Payne, Laurie Rhodebeck, and Paul Weber. 111 ABSTRACT THE PROCESS OF THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE RUSSIAN REGIONS: ECONOMIC BALANCING OR LANDMARK OF "KREMLINIZATION"? Igor Y. Danchenko August 5, 2005 Every state, regardless of its size, faces a problem of spatial organization and distribution of its power over territory, particularly in times of the formation of its statehood and the establishment of the system of governance. The territorial­ administrative reform in modem Russia has taken an unprecedented scale over the last five years. Recollecting the experiences of the imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, Putin's reforms aim at elimination of a whole tier of Russia's federative units - autonomous okrugs - by merging them with adjacent regions. Arguably, the enlargement of Russian regions and the reduction of their number from the current eighty-nine would be socio-economically beneficial for regions, and would make Russia a more symmetrical, and thus a more governable federation. There appears to be no single clear rationale for the enlargement. Based on three case studies, I assess the political, economic, and demographic arguments for the regional enlargement in Russia, and draw conclusions whether the process would, as the current Russian government contends, indeed benefit the regions, or would it IV benefit the state, both the regions and the state, or neither. Assessing the regional enlargement in a qualitative and quantitative analysis, I characterize the process in terms of its top-down or bottom-up qualities, its implications for the regions, and its contribution to the symmetry of Russian federalism. Russia is a state in the making, and the analysis of regional enlargement is one of the linchpins of its development. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ......................................................................................... .iv LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................. vii LIST OF CHARTS, SCHEMES, AND MAPS ................................................. .ix EPIGRAPH ............................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................2 CHAPTER I. CONTEXT OF THE ENLARGEMENT OF RUSSIAN REGIONS ........ .4 Research Questions and Hypothesis ..................................................... .4 Thesis Structure ............................................................................ 10 Literature Review ........................................................................... 12 Historical Background .....................................................................23 CHAPTER II. DEMOGRAPHICS OF REGIONAL ENLARGEMENT ................... .45 Population-to-Landmass Ratio ........................................................... .45 Demographic Situation since the Breakup ofthe USSR ............................. .47 Mergers of Regions as Mergers of Cities ............................................... 52 Dilution of Aboriginal Vote ............................................................... 56 Demographic Factor in the Enlargement of Regions ..................................60 CHAPTER III. POLITICS OF REGIONAL ENLARGEMENT ............................. 65 Permskii Krai as a Pilot Project of Regional Enlargement. .......................... 67 Regional Enlargement in Irkutsk and Tyumen' Matryoshkas ........................ 78 VI Political Factor in the Enlargement of Regions ........................................ 86 CHAPTER IV. ECONOMICS OF REGIONAL ENLARGEMENT ........................ 89 Economic Asymmetry of Russian Regions ............................................. 90 Constitutional Provisions for Economy ................................................. 93 Factor of Extractive Industry ............................................................. 97 Diversification of Economy and Enhancement of Connectivity of Russia ....... l 06 Trends of Fiscal Federalism ............................................................. 125 Economic Factor in the Enlargement of Regions ..................................... 133 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ........................................................... 136 Demographic, Political, and Economic Aspects of Regional Enlargement. ...... 136 Conclusions ................................................................................. 141 Security Dilemma of Reunification or Disintegration ............................... 148 Implications for Future Studies ......................................................... 152 REFERENCES .................................................................................... 156 APPENDICES ..................................................................................... 161 CURRICULUM VITAE ......................................................................... .l82 VB LIST OF TABLES 1. Dynamics of Russian Federal Division ...................................................... 175 2. General Political and Administrative Information on the Studied Regions ............ 176 3. Numbers of Ethnic Russians and Other Ethnic Groups in Studied Regions ............ 177 3-A. Proportion of Ethnic Russians and Other Ethnic Groups in Studied Regions ....... 178 4. Representation in Legislature in Relation to Landmass and Population of Regions ... 179 5. Mergers of Regions as Mergers of Regional Capital Cities .............................. 180 6. Major Enterprises with Significant Presence in the Region and Share of Revenues from Extractive Industries in Consolidated Budgets ........................ 181 7. Basic Indicators of Environmental Protection by Regions of Russia .................... 111 8. Donor Regions and Recipient Regions in 1995-1999 ...................................... 127 9. Typology of Regions by Volume of Balance (by financial aid) in 1999 ................ 128 10. Economic Indicators of the Studied Regions and Their Possible Changes after Proposed Mergers ....................................................................... 130 V111 LIST OF CHARTS, SCHEMES, AND MAPS 1. Appendix 1, Note on Transliteration and Terminology ............................. .161 2. Appendix 2, Abbreviations and Acronyms ........................................... .162 3. Appendix 3, Forms of Russian Regions ............................................... .163 4. Appendix 4, Article 66 of the Russian Constitution ................................. 164 5. Chart 1, Leading Regions by Volume of Investments per 1 Official, 2004 ........ 92 6. Scheme 1, Federal Symmetry in a State ............................................... 165 7. Scheme 2, Federation as a Dynamic Organizational Structure ofStates .......... 166 8. Scheme 3, Dynamics of Russian Federalism: 1990-2005 ........................... 167 9. Scheme 4, Ratio of the Direct and Reverse Flows between Federal