ABSTRACT
This chapter presents all basic political, economic, and demographic data on a territorial unit of the Russian Federation, Amur Oblast, which is situated in the southwest part of Russia’s Far East, near the Amur River. It borders Khabarovsk Krai, the Sakha Republic, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Chita Oblast, and China. Anatolii Belonogov is the sixth executive to govern Amur Oblast since President Boris Yeltsin introduced the institution of governor in 1991. Power has changed hands more in Amur than in any other Russian region. Amur Oblast is home to the Svobodnyi cosmodrome, which is located at a former strategic nuclear missile base and set to become Russia’s top space center. The Soviet Union had launched many of its rockets from Kazakhstan, at a base the Russians must now pay to use. Belonogov has a very Russo-centric approach to the successor states of the USSR.
