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 Republic of Tatarstan. Tatarstan is located in the east of European Russia, at the confluence of the middle Volga and the Kama rivers, and borders the republics of Bashkortostan and Chuvashia, and Orenburg, Samara, and Ulyanovsk oblasts. Only 25 percent of all Tatars live in Tatarstan, accounting for about half of the republic’s population. Inhabiting the Eurasian steppes since ancient times, the Tatars built the Khanate of Kazan, one of the political units that emerged from the Mongol Empire, which ruled much of European Russia until the 15th century. Since 1994, Mintimer Shaimiev’s authority within Tatarstan and among federal politicians has largely been due to his moderate nationality policy.
