ABSTRACT
This chapter provides all basic political, economic, and demographic data on a territorial unit of the Russian Federation, Kirov Oblast, which is located in the eastern part of the Eastern European plain, halfway between Moscow and the Ural Mountains. Due to a well-developed system of rivers and canals, it has transport links to harbors in the Baltic, Black, White, Azov, and Caspian seas. The oblast capital, Kirov, was founded in 1374, and is located about 900 km northeast of Moscow. Vladimir Sergeenkov was a member of the Popular Power Duma faction when he was elected governor of Kirov Oblast in October 1996. Sergeenkov, backed by the Communist-led National Patriotic Union of Russia, earned 50.64 percent of the vote, defeating businessman Nikolai Shtin in the second round. The city of Kirov received national attention in June 1998 when Sergei Bachinin, the controversial editor-in-chief of the Vyatskii Nablyudatel newspaper was hospitalized with a fractured skull after an alleged “biking incident.”.
