KURGAN OBLAST

An administrative region of the Russian Federation. Part of the UralsFederal DistrictandEconomic Region, Kostroma is often called the “gateway toSiberia” due to its use as a rail junction for European and Asiatic Russia. The oblast is internally bordered byChelyabinsk,Sverdlovsk, andTyumen, and shares an international border withKazakhstan. The regional topography is defined by forests andsteppeswith numerous lakes. Kurgan Oblast’s most important waterway is the Tobol River, which flows from Kazakhstan’s Qostanay region (also spelled as Kostanai) through the administrative capital of Kurgan, before joining the Irtysh River.

With a warm, moistclimate, the region functions as the keyagriculturalcenter for the Urals region, with over 60 percent of its territory being arable.In addition to agriculture, the oblast’s industries include mechanical engineering, pharmaceuticals, electricity generation, and manufacturing of building materials. In 2006, 600 million tons ofoilreserves were located. The region is 71,000 square kilometers and has a population of approximately 1 million inhabitants.Ethnic Russiansaccount for more than 90 percent of the population, with small minorities ofTatars,Bashkirs,Kazakhs, andUkrainians.

The region was a reliable supporter of theCommunist Party of the Russian Federation(KPRF) in the 1990s, with some support shown forVladimirZhirinovsky’sLiberal Democratic Party of Russiaas well. In 1996, the KPRF candidate Oleg Bogomolov won the gubernatorial election in the oblast. He was reelected in 2000 and 2004. In the last election, he switched toVladimirPutin’sUnited Russiaparty; despite having the Kremlin’s backing, he only narrowly escaped defeat by Yevgeny Sobakin, a candidate of the liberalUnion of Right Forces. His weakness was reflective of the region’s worsening economic plight during a period of overall growth in Russia. In the late 1990s, Bogomolov took an active role in trying to resolve the diplomatic standoff betweenAbkhaziaandGeorgia. He has also established close contacts with other members of theCommonwealth of Independent Statesincluding Kazakhstan andAzerbaijan.