Federal districts of the Russian Federation

At the time of their establishment in 2000, seven federal districts were created ^[2] . The first change in their number (increase to eight) and their composition was the separation of the North Caucasus Federal District from the Southern Federal District on the basis of a decree of President D. A. Medvedev on January 19, 2010 . The second is the formation of the Crimean Federal District in the territories joined to Russia in 2014 . The third is the accession of the Crimean Federal District to the Southern Federal District in 2016, the fourth (and the only change in composition, but not quantity) is the transfer of Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory from the Siberian Federal District to the Far East in 2018. The only change in the names of the districts was the renaming of the originally North Caucasian District to the South on June 21, 2000 (until the subsequent separation of the new North Caucasian District from it).

The largest district in terms of population, density and number of subjects is the Central District, the size of the territory - the Far Eastern District. The smallest territory is the North Caucasus District, in terms of population and population density - the Far Eastern District, and in the number of subjects - the Ural District. The Ural and Central districts do not have republics among their constituent entities - the first has autonomous districts as part of one regional subject, and the second is generally represented exclusively by regions and a city of federal significance. There is not a single region in the North Caucasus District (although there is one region), in addition, this district is the only one in which the ethnic majority of the district does not have an absolute majority of the population, the proportion of which is the highest in the Central District.

All districts have land borders with other states. The North-Western and Far Eastern districts are composed of entities that do not have a land border with other entities and the main territory of Russia. The central, Volga and North Caucasian districts do not have access to the oceans (although the latter faces the “international” Caspian Sea- lake). The Volga region is the largest in terms of the share of industrial and agricultural production in the Russian economy; The Ural District gives the largest tax deductions that form the federal budget.

Federal districts are not subjects of the Russian Federation and are not provided for by the Russian Constitution at all . At the same time, individual researchers have expressed the view that districts are administrative-territorial units of a new type ^{[3] [4]} . In addition, in the scientific literature there was an opinion about the existence of analogies between federal districts, Russian pre-revolutionary governorates-generals and the French " districts of regional events " during the Fourth Republic ^[5] .

The plenipotentiary representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the federal district is not formally a leader for the heads of constituent entities of the district . He acts as a representative of the President of the Russian Federation and coordinates the work of the territorial bodies of federal executive bodies existing at the district level. These include:

• Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation
• District troops of the Russian Guard
• Bank of Russia Headquarters
• regional customs departments of the Federal Customs Service of Russia
• management of the Federal Reserve
• Roskomnadzor management
• departments of Rosprirodnadzor

In the districts, the administrative centers-cities are defined in which their leading coordinating bodies are located in the form of the plenipotentiary representative of the president, his office and the departments of federal departments . The administrative centers of the two federal districts are not the largest cities in the federal district: in the North Caucasus ( Pyatigorsk is less than Makhachkala , Stavropol , Vladikavkaz , Grozny and Nalchik ) and the Far East (Vladivostok is less than Khabarovsk). Also, before the abolition of the Crimean Federal District, this was the case in it: Simferopol was smaller than Sevastopol. In two federal districts, administrative centers themselves are constituent entities of the Federation (cities of federal significance: St. Petersburg in the North-West Federal District, Moscow in the Central). The Southern Federal District is the only district in Russia where the city of federal significance (Sevastopol) is not the center of the district, but is an independent subject of the federation.

• Economic regions of Russia

• The list of federal districts Approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 13, 2000 N 849 (as amended on May 10, 2015) // Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On the authorized representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the federal district" dated May 13, 2000 No. 849 (as amended October 20, 2015)
• Official sites of federal districts:
  • Central Federal District
  • Northwestern Federal District
  • Southern Federal District
  • North Caucasus Federal District
  • Volga Federal District
  • Ural federal district
  • Siberian Federal District
  • Far Eastern Federal District