Gubernatorial Appointment in Nenets AD Points to Its Amalgamation with Arkhangelsk Oblast, ‘Mari Uver’ Portal Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Mar. 24 – Citing what it calls “insider sources,” the Estonia-based Mari Uver portal says that Putin’s appointment of Irina Gekht as the new governor of the Nenets Autonomous District points to the amalgamation of that federal subject with neighboring Arkhangelsk Oblast in the Russian North.
    Such a move would restart both the Kremlin leader’s longstanding desire to restart the amalgamation of regions and republics, specifically punish the Nenets AD for its independent- mindedness and simplify Moscow’s control of the western portion of the Arctic coast south of the Northern Sea Route (mariuver.com/2025/03/24/objedinenije-nao-s-arhangelskoj-oblastju/).
     (For background on regional amalgamation and Putin’s earlier efforts to promote it in the Russian North, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/01/moscow-sooner-or-later-will-restart.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/04/moscow-may-restart-regional.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/01/kremlin-now-planning-to-combine.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/11/some-in-arkhangelsk-by-hook-or-crook.html.)
    According to Mari Uver, “one of Gekht’s key tasks will be the renewal and successful carrying out of the project of unifying the regions. Experts expect,” it continues, “tt she has the necessary qualities for establishing constructive relations [with the head of Arkhangelsk Oblast], something her predecessor was not able to do.”
     Indeed, that was one of the reasons that Yury Bezdudny’s exit had become increasingly likely, the portal says. His removal was inevitable was Moscow’s unhappiness when the Nenets AD was the only federal subject to reject Putin’s 2020 constitutional amendments (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/07/being-nenets-or-nenets-resident-no.html).
    According to Mari Uver, “the process of unification will be complicated and require from Gekht decisiveness and firmness especially considering the possible resistance of local elites and the population of the Nenets AD. Nevertheless, experts think that she has all the necessary skills to successfully carry it out and possibly lead other unifications as well.”
    If the Nenets AD and Arkhangelsk Oblast are unified, they will form an enormous and heavily ethnic Russian region along the Arctic coast. At present, the Nenets AD, with only 44,000 residents is the federal subject with the fewest people, 70 percent of whom are ethnic Russians; and the Arkhangelsk Oblast has about one million, 82 percent of whom are Russian.