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 Orel Oblast. Orel Oblast is located in the center of European Russia. It borders Bryansk, Tula, Kaluga, Lipetsk, and Kursk oblasts. The region is rich in water resources: it has over 2,000 rivers, although none are suitable for navigation. Orel Oblast exports a mere 5 percent of its industrial output and imports two-thirds of its energy as well as automobiles, food, and textiles. In October 1997, the governor of the neighboring Bryansk Oblast, Yurii Lodkin, claimed that Stroev could win the presidential election, but Stroev has always denied having higher ambitions. In the oblast’s 1998 legislative elections, Communists took 11 of 50 seats, while the other elected candidates were independents.
