ABSTRACT
This chapter provides all basic political, economic, and demographic data on a territorial unit of the Russian Federation, Kamchatka Oblast, which is located in the extreme northeast of Russia. Its territory includes the Kamchatka peninsula, the neighboring part of the mainland, the Kommandor Islands, and the Koryak Autonomous Okrug. It borders Magadan Oblast and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in the north, the Okhotsk Sea in the west, and the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean in the east. The oblast’s territory has large mineral resource deposits, such as gas, coal, and metals including gold and silver, but current levels of extraction barely meet local needs. Key industries include fishing and fish processing, which account for over 70 percent of regional industrial output, and forestry. The oblast is one of the poorest in the country. According to a 1998 survey by Ekspert magazine, Kamchatka covers only 40 percent of its financial needs from its own budgetary revenues.
