CHUKOTKA

Chukotka: translation

/ Chukot Autonomous Okrug

An administrative district of the Russian Federation. Located in Russia’s extreme northeast, Chukotka shares land borders withKamchatka Krai,Magadan Oblast, andSakha. It is part of the Far EasternFederal DistrictandEconomic Region. It sits on the Bering, Chukchi, and East Siberian seas; at the closest point, it is only 5 kilometers from the American state of Alaska, with which the region has been developing closer trade andtransportationlinks since 1991.The region covers an area of 737,700 square kilometers, including Wrangel Island in theArctic Ocean.

Chukotka has a population of just over 55,000, one half of what it was during Soviet times. The principal town and administrative center is Anadyr (pop. 11,000). Chukotka has large reserves ofoil,natural gas, coal, gold, and other natural resources; much of the indigenous population remains linked to traditional occupations such as reindeer herding, hunting, andfishing. Once part of the Magadan Oblast, Chukotka declared its independence from theoblastin 1991, and officially became afederal subjectof the Russian Federation in 1993, though it, like otherautonomous okrugs, remains partially subordinate to another federal subject (in this case, Magadan). Recently, a proposal has been made to reverse this development. The titular minority, theChukchi, account for 24 percent of the population.Ethnic Russiansform a majority (52 percent) in the province, withUkrainians(9 percent), Yupik (3 percent), and Even (2.6 percent) rounding out the population.

Beginning in 2000, the billionaireoligarchand owner of the Chelsea Football Club,Roman Abramovich, served as governor of the region. He replaced the unpopular Aleksandr Nazarov. Abramovich has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Chukotka and reportedly used the region as ataxhaven for his companySibneft, while the company made major investments in the localeconomy. Abramovich was reappointed, reportedly against his wishes, as governor in 2005 byVladimir Putin. In 2008, Roman Kopin, a former aide to both Nazarov and Abramovich, took over the governorship.