Krasnodar Region, Russia

The Krasnodar Region is located in the south-west part of the Northern Caucasus, and the 45th parallel splits it up in approximately two equal parts. In the northeast, the region borders on the Rostov Oblast, on the east with the Stavropol Region, in the south on Georgia. In the northwest and southwest the territory is washed by the Azov and the Black Seas. The general extent of borders of edge 1 540 km, overland 800 km and 740 km on the sea. Krasnodar Region occupies an area of 76,000 square kilometers and is the southernmost region of Russia. In the region, there live over five million people, about 53 % in the cities and 47 % in the rural area inclusive. Average population density 66,6 persons on 1 square kilometre. The territory itself has been formed from a part of the territories, which before the revolution were occupied by the Kuban Oblast and Chernomorskaya Province. The two administrative units have been united into the Kubansko-Chernomorskaya Oblast, which in 1920 covered a territory of 105.5 thousand square kilometers. In 1924 the North-Caucasian Region was established with a center in Rostov-on-Don, in 1934 it was divided into Azovo-Chernomorsky (the center Rostov-on-Don) and the North-Caucasian (the center — Stavropol) Regions. On September 13, 1937 the Azovo-Chernomorsky Region was divided into Rostov Oblast and the Krasnodar Region, including the Adygeyan Autonomous Oblast. In 1991 the Adygeyan Autonomous Oblast abandoned the region’s structure and was reorganized into the Adygeyan Republic. The basis of the industrial structure of the Krasnodar Region is made of the industrial, construction, fuel and energy complexes, the area of the information and communication technologies, as well as the agroindustrial, transport, resort-recreational and tourist complexes. The last three directions of activity (agroindustrial, transport, sanatorium-resort, and tourist complexes) correspond to the priorities of social and economic development of Russia and determine a special status of the Krasnodar Region in the country’s economics. A dynamic development of the agroindustrial complex (hereinafter: AIC) of the Krasnodar Region provides a food security of the country. The region possesses the richest resources of the agricultural lands, including the black soils, the area of which makes up 4,805,000 hectares (that is over 4 per cent of the Russian and about 2 per cent of the world reserves). The region holds the first place among the entities of the Russian Federation by the volume of production of grain, sugar beet, fruit and berries, the second place in production of sunflower seeds and honey. The region holds the second place among the entities of the Russian Federation in production of eggs, meat of cattle, and poultry (in live weight), and the third place in production of milk. The transport complex provides implementation of the foreign policy and economic interests of Russia in the zone of the Black Sea and Mediterranean economic cooperation, making a significant input in the increase of “coherency“ of the country’s territory. The seaports of the region provide a direct access through the Azov and the Black Seas to the international foreign-trade routes and process over 35 per cent of the foreign-trade Russian and transit cargoes of the seaports of Russia, that of about one-third oil exported by Russian. Over the territory of the region, pass the most important railroad routes of federal significance, which are oriented toward the international seaports of the region and the resorts of the Black and Azov Seas. The pipeline transport is represented by the international oil pipeline of Tengiz Novorossiysk and gas pipeline of Russia Turkey (The Blue Stream). The air transportation of the Krasnodar Region is represented by the four airports, two of which are the international ones (Krasnodar, Sochi).