ABSTRACT
This chapter presents all basic political, economic, and demographic data on a territorial unit of the Russian Federation, Tula Oblast, which lies to the south of Moscow in the Central Russian highland. It borders Moscow, Ryazan, Lipetsk, Orel, and Kaluga oblasts. The oblast’s administrative center, Tula city, was first mentioned in 1146, a year before Moscow’s founding. The oblast’s foreign contacts have been relatively poorly developed since the administration has not been welcoming to Western companies. On 23 March 1997, Vasilii Aleksandrovich Starodubtsev, one of the infamous 1991 coup-makers and the leader of the Russian Agrarian Union, was elected governor of Tula Oblast. The Tula Oblast tax police have fined the collective farm he once headed 129 million rubles. The farm was charged with illegally trading spirits and producing fake vodka. Tula Oblast has an official mission in the capital.
