ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast, which not only has the largest number of nuclear facilities in its territory among the Volga Okrug constituencies, but also is one of Russia's regions where center-periphery relations were relatively smooth during the rough years immediately after the break-up of the Soviet Union. It reviews the status and trends of nuclear decentralization through detailed cases studies of Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast, the closed city of Sarov, and one of Russia's largest federal nuclear centers—the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Experimental Physics (VNIIEF), which is located in Sarov. The authority of municipal leaders and the management of VNIIEF was formally "divorced" in 1992 when most of the institute's social services were transferred to the city jurisdiction. Putin's federal reforms put an end to separatist tendencies in Russia and established much stricter control over the federation's constituencies, particularly in the area of federal jurisdiction.
