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 Sverdlovsk Oblast. Sverdlovsk Oblast is located at the center of Russia, on the border dividing Europe and Asia. Sverdlovsk Oblast is second only to Moscow Oblast in terms of industrial production and third in the proportion of expenditures covered by its own budgetary revenues. During the fall of 1998, he once again toyed with the idea of introducing his own currency in Sverdlovsk Oblast, the Urals franc, which had been used briefly in 1991, but backed down after realizing the idea was extremely impractical. In trying to transform Sverdlovsk Oblast into the Ural Republic in 1993, Rossel made himself one of the most outspoken advocates of ending Russia’s asymmetrical federalism and giving each region equal rights.
