Federal subjects of Russia

Russia is a federation which, as of March 1, 2008, consists of 83 "federal subjects" (members of the Federation; Russian singular субъект федерации, subyekt federatsii). In 1993, when the Constitution was adopted, there were 89 federal subjects listed. By 2008 the number of federal subjects had been decreased to 83 because of mergers.

The federal 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). They do, however, differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy.

Types
Each federal subject belongs to one of the following types:

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 92, although nine of them are no longer in use after mergers.

Mergers


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

Further proposals for mergers
The following merger proposals have been made in recent years; most have since become inactive.