ABSTRACT
This chapter provides all basic political, economic, and demographic data on every territorial unit of the Russian Federation, its local government structure, regional politics and electoral history through the spring 2000 elections and the summer 2000 reorganization of the Sakhalin Oblast. Sakhalin Oblast includes Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands chain, both of which lie off the coast of Khabarovsk Krai. Igor Farkhutdinov was first appointed governor of Sakhalin Oblast in April 1995, and was popularly elected to the post in October 1996. With more than twenty years, experience in regional politics, Farkhutdinov was serving as the mayor of the oblast’s capital Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk at the time he was appointed governor. The large Korean population residing in the oblast that was forcibly removed from their homeland to Sakhalin in the 1940s has been an important political issue for the oblast.
