Enormous Gap in GDP Per Capita among Russian Regions has Increased Even More since 1991, ‘Club of the Regions’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 29 – Since 1991, the GDP per capita has increased in all the federal subjects of the Russian Federation; but the gap between the richest and poorest has increased as well, with the richest being the two capitals and oil and gas producing regions and nine of the ten poorest being non-Russian republics, the ‘Club of the Regions’ reports.

            The wealthiest on this metric is the oil and gas-rich Nenets Autonomous District which has a GDP per capita of 538,965 US dollars, the portal says. The poorest is Ingushetia with a GDP per capita of 10,429 US dollars, less than two percent of that of the richest (club-rf.ru/theme/729).

            As horrific as that difference is, even more disturbing is the fact that the Russian government has done little or nothing to address this imbalance and that as a result, while the wealthier regions have gotten richer on this metric, the poorer ones have fallen even further behind than they were at the end of Soviet times.

            This imbalance in the Russian Federation is far worse than in other major countries, the portal continues. In China, the difference between the richest and poorest areas differs between five and six times, in Germany by three or four times, and in the United States by only two or three times.

            That has two major consequences, the Club of the Regions analysis says. On the one hand, it is leading to uncontrolled migration from the poorest to the richest regions; and on the other, it is sparking calls in the poorest regions for a new deal or even independence, thus threatening the territorial integrity of the country.