Opposition to Putin’s Municipal Reform Greater East of the Urals for Good Reason: Population Centers There are Far from One Another

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 2 – Many have been struck by the fact that opposition to Putin’s program of eliminating local municipalities has been far greater east of the Urals than in European portions of the Russian Federation (fedpress.ru/article/3388302). But they shouldn’t have been as there is a compelling reason for this pattern.

             In European portions of the Russian Federation, distances are shorter, roads and railways more available and so the population is generally sitting still for one more Muscovite move against their interests given that they can reach oblast and kray centers relatively easily to deal with the bureaucracy.

But east of the Urals, the situation is very different: roads and railways are few and far between and it is far more difficult for people in outlying regions to get to major urban centers. As a result, if local governments are disbanded, the populations they have served will find it far more difficult to get to the new centers of power and thus defend and advance their interests.

            Siberian resistance isn’t ethnic or even regionalist in its origin: it is simply a response to the situation people across that enormous space must deal with, even if Moscow continues to ignore their special needs.