Russia’s Federal Subjects, Especially Large Ones, are Anything But Homogeneous

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 6 – Russia’s federal subjects are often treated in Moscow and by foreign commentators as more or less homogeneous units, but they are in fact anything but. And the largest ones, like the Sakha Republic, are so diverse that policies which may work in one place don’t in others.

            That reality is highlighted in new demands on the republic government coming from the northern reaches of Sakha, a republic whose area is greater than that of all the EU member countries involved, and whose component regions find themselves increasingly in different situations that require different strategies.

            “The extension of the borders of the relatively underpopulated Arctic zone of Sakha, global warming, changes in the time of exploitation of winter settlements, and the pandemic all underscore the need for the development and adoption of a program to provide food security for the Sakha Arctic,” sociologist U.A. Vinokurova says (indigenous-russia.com/archives/9312).

            Just as all-Russian programs often ignore the diversity of the Russian Federation so too pan-Sakha programs ignore the specific problems that the population in the northern portion of the republic face.  She draws this conclusion on the basis of research into the prices in stores in the region, prices that have shot up even though incomes have not.

            People are being forced to sell their homes and move out of the region, and as a result, small businesses are collapsing in a region that Moscow at least has suggested is a priority for development, Vinokurova continues. What is needed is a restoration of Soviet-era guarantees to keep prices low and allow the indigenous populations to survive.

            Unless that happens, the northern reaches of the republic will descend into abject poverty from which they are unlikely to recover. The people will then leave, and the region will not have the population needed to maintain security. Simply continuing as now with programs that work in the south is the path to disaster, the sociologist concludes.

            Such intra-regional tensions seldom get much attention, but they are an increasing feature of life in the many larger federal subjects, most of which are located in Siberia and the Far East; and they will become even more common if Vladimir Putin succeeds in his push for the amalgamation of regions, especially of poorer non-Russian ones with wealthier Russian ones.