NOVOSIBIRSK OBLAST

An administrative region of the Russian Federation. Located in the very center of Russia on the Siberian Plain, Novosibirsk Oblast is bordered byOmsk,Tomsk,Kemerovo, andAltay Krai; it shares an international border withKazakhstan. Theoblastis part of the West SiberianEconomic Regionand the SiberianFederal District. As afederal subject, the oblast ranks 18th in both population (2.7 million) and territory (178,200 square km). While the vast majority of the population isethnic Russian, a significant ethnicGermancommunity is resident in the oblast, though many have quit the area forGermanysince 1991.

The regional geography is a mix oftaiga,steppe, bogs, and numerous rivers (the Ob and Om) and lakes, including Chany Lake, one of the world’s largest. A relatively sunnyclimateallows for extensiveagriculture, with the primary crops being potatoes, flax, mustard, and sunflowers; the region’s forests are also abundant in berries. The capital, Novosibirsk (pop. 1.4 million) has grown extremely rapidly in the past century, owing to its location on theTrans-Siberian Railwayas well as its internationally recognized university community at Akademogorodok.Sometimes known as the Soviet Union’s “City of Science,” Novosibirsk has a strong reputation for physics, math, and informatics. The Tolmachevo International Airport is the largest inSiberia, and connects to destinations across theCommonwealth of Independent Statesand farther afield. Engineering and metalworking are the primary drivers ofindustry; the region’s exporteconomyis oriented toward metals, machinery, chemical products, and timber.

Despite being dismissed byBoris Yeltsinin 1993 after he publicly sided with Vice PresidentAleksandr Rutskoyin theconstitutional crisis of 1993, Vitaly Mukha was able to regain his post as a candidate for theCommunist Party of the Russian Federationby 1995. A contentious relationship existed between the oblast and the federal authorities during the late 1990s. With the waning popularity of the Communists, Viktor Tolokonsky, former mayor of the regional capital and an ally of theoligarch Boris Berezovsky, replaced Mukha in 2000; he was reappointed byVladimir Putinin 2007. Improving thetransportationnetwork, specifically the construction of a metro, has been Tolokonsky’s key issue since taking office. He has also focused on expanding cross-border trade with Kazakhstan. In 2001, Igor Belyakov, the deputy mayor of Novosibirsk, was gunned down, purportedly for his support of transferring control of the city’s largest open-air market to government control.