No to consolidations

The Institute of Contemporary Development (InSoR), whose board of trustees, by the way, is headed by President Dmitry Medvedev, published a report “Unification of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation: pros and cons,” in which it was openly announced that the consolidation of regions, begun by Vladimir Putin back in the first term of his presidency, turned out to be meaningless.

One of the authors of the report, economist Evgeniy Gontmakher, announced: “The analysis showed that, at least, it’s time to stop” (there are plans for further merging of the regions - Moscow and St. Petersburg with the adjacent regions, Khakassia with the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Adygea with Krasnodar, the Arkhangelsk Region with the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Altai Republic with the Altai Territory, the Tyumen Region with the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug). His co-author Natalya Zubarevich expressed confidence that there will be no further consolidation.

According to the InSoRa website, the authors of the report came to disappointing conclusions.

In their opinion, regional mergers had zero effect. If there is any point in continuing something in this direction, it will only be within the framework of normal reform. For now, it is clear that the center was not guided in each specific case by specific political considerations, without adequate socio-economic expertise. Government institutions have practically abandoned their own analytical departments, almost never use independent consulting, and often consider scientific research a waste of money and time. Decision makers have little knowledge of both domestic and foreign experience in solving spatial problems.

The federal center, through mergers, has demonstrated weak competence and insufficient professionalism. Governance in the country has not improved, and the prestige of the center in the regions has suffered greatly.

Continued consolidation could lead to a variety of conflicts, from ethnic to environmental. The only guarantee to avoid any new initiative of this kind is the transition to normal democracy, a return to a decentralized federal state, and the introduction of a system of independent expertise.

As is known, in recent years the Perm region has merged with the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) and Evenki Autonomous Okrug have become part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kamchatka has merged with Koryakia, the Irkutsk region has merged with the Ust-Ordynsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug, the Chita Region - with the Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug.