Russia is a federation that consists of 83 subjects. (Constitution of Russia, Article 65) . In 1993, when the constitution was adopted, there were 89 subjects listed. Some of them were later merged. These subjects are of equal federal rights in the sense that they have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council (upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia). However, they do differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy. Autonomous okrugs, while federal subjects in their own right, are, at the same time, considered to be administrative divisions of other federal subjects (with Chukotka Autonomous Okrug being the only exception).

Types of federal subjects of Russia

Each subject of the federation belongs to one of the following categories:

List of federal subjects

The subjects have both numerical codes and two- or three-letter ISO 3166-2:RU codes. The numerical codes span from 01 to 89, although 6 of them are no longer in use after mergers.

Mergers

Russia had more federal subjects, but some of the federal subjects were merged into larger territories starting in 2005. The merging process was finished on 1 March 2008. No new mergers have been planned since March 2008.

Further proposals for mergers

See also

• Subdivisions of Russia

• Federal districts of Russia

• Economic regions of Russia

• History of the administrative division of Russia

• Flags of federal subjects of Russia

• List of heads of federal subjects of Russia

• List of Russian federal subjects by GDP (nominal)

• ISO 3166-2:RU