Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

102 Oksana Orachevaassemblies in the process of unification has significantly decreased, as it is thegovernors of the merging regions who are charged with placing such mergerson the political agenda. As governors are now appointed by the President,such changes have moved the regional population further away from thedecision-making process, and turned questions regarding mergers into projects,which are to be decided exclusively by elites.Another important additional factor to be considered is that the recentunification projects can be seen as a silent revision of the ethnic dimension ofthe Russian federation. All mergers, and the unification of the Perm regionand Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug again is very illustrative, haveresulted in the disappearance of some ‘ethnic subjects of the federation’.With other mergers now in place one should ask whether the Perm Oblastand the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug can be viewed as a ‘mergermodel’. There is no straightforward answer to this question. On the onehand, the formation of Perm Krai started the process of the mergers andbrought to the surface some of the ambiguous legal issues and procedures(appropriate changes were made into the federal legislation). It also securedthe role of certain political institutions and actors in the process. It wasagreed that the merger was not to be initiated at the grassroots level, butnonetheless was required to gain popular support through a referendum.At the same time the specific political and economic gains and losses willdiffer significantly from merger to merger, thus demonstrating that elitenegotiations play a significant role in the merger process. Moreover, theeconomic gains from mergers are rapidly decreasing as the centre is shorteningthe unification transition period and speeding up the creation of jointbudgetsin the newly merged subjects. Moreover, by adopting changes to theRussian Federation Budget Code that significantly limit federal budget supportto compound subjects, the federal centre has sent a political signal thatit intends to push for the elimination of all of the compound federal subjectsthrough the merger process.Notes1 Some authors argue that federalism helps to protect ethnic minorities withinmultinational federations. This argument is developed by Will Kymlicka, ‘Westernpolitical theory and ethnic relations in Eastern Europe’, in Will Kymlicka andMagda Opalski (eds), Can Liberal Pluralism Be Exported? Western PoliticalTheory and Ethnic Relations in Eastern Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press,2001, p. 29.2 Fifteen republics (Bashkortostan, Buryatiya, Chuvashiya, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkariya, Kalmykiya, Kareliya, Komi, Mari El, Mordoviya, North Osetiya-Alaniya, Tatarstan, Tyva, Udmurtiya, Sakha) are former Autonomous SovietSocialist Republics (ASSR) that existed within the RSFSR. Four republics(Adygeya, Altai, Karachaevo-Cherkessiya, and Khakasiya) appeared after theupgrade of the status of autonomous Oblasts. Two republics (Chechnya andIngushetiya) are the result of the breakdown of a former Chechen–Ingush ASSR.