Starting in 2005, some of the federal subjects were merged into larger territories. In this process, six very sparsely populated subjects (comprising in total 0.3% of the population of Russia) were integrated into more populated subjects, with the hope that the economic development of those territories would benefit from the much larger means of their neighbours. The merging process was finished on 1 March 2008. No new mergers have been planned since March 2008. The six territories became "administrative-territorial regions with special status". They have large proportions of minorities, with Russians being a majority only in three of them. Four of those territories have a second official language in addition to Russian:
Buryat (in two of the merged territories),
Komi-Permian,
Koryak. This is an exception: all the other official languages of Russia (other than Russian) are set by the Constitutions of its constituent Republics (
Mordovia,
Chechnya,
Dagestan etc.). The status of the "administrative-territorial regions with special status" has been a subject of criticism because it does not appear in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. In addition to those six territories that entirely ceased to be subjects of the Russian Federation and were downgraded to territories with special status, another three subjects have a status of subject but are simultaneously part of a more populated subject: •
Nenets Autonomous Okrug (2010 population of 42,090) has been a subject since 1993, but is also, according to its Constitution, part of
Arkhangelsk Oblast •
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug obtained autonomy in 1977, but is also part of
Tyumen Oblast •
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug obtained the status of subject in 1992 (after obtaining autonomy in 1977), but is also part of Tyumen Oblast. With an estimated population of 49,348 as of 2018,
Chukotka is currently the least populated subject of Russia that is not part of a more populated subject. It was separated from
Magadan Oblast in 1993. Chukotka is one of the richest subjects of Russia (with a gross regional product [GRP] per capita equivalent to that of Australia) and therefore does not fit in the pattern of merging a subject to benefit from the economic dynamism of the neighbour. In 1992,
Ingushetia separated from
Chechnya to stay away from the growing violence in Chechnya. Those two Muslim republics, populated in vast majority (95%+) by closely related
Vainakh people, speaking
Vainakhish languages, remain the two poorest subjects of Russia, with the GRP per capita of Ingushetia being equivalent to that of Iraq. According to 2016 statistics, however, they are also the safest regions of Russia, and also have the lowest alcohol consumption, with alcohol poisoning at least 40 times lower than the federal average. Until 1994,
Sokolsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast was part of
Ivanovo Oblast. In 2011–2012, the territory of Moscow increased by 140% (to ) by acquiring part of
Moscow Oblast. On 13 May 2020, the governors of Arkhangelsk Oblast and Nenets Autonomous Okrug announced their plan to merge following the collapse of oil prices stemming from the
COVID-19 pandemic. The process was scrapped on 2 July due to its unpopularity among the population. ==See also==