 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Districts of Russia" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Adistrict (raion) is an administrative and municipal division of afederal subject ofRussia.
As of 2023, excluding Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sevastopol, there are 1,893 administrative districts (including the 20 in theRussian-occupied territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia) and 1,823 municipal districts (also including the 14 in the Republic of Crimea) in Russia. All these districts have anadministrative center, which is usually the same locality for both the administrative and municipal entity. If the three federal cities is included, there will be a total of 2,040 districts in Russia. Most western federal subjects are divided into smaller districts, while eastern federal subjects are divided into larger districts.
In modernRussia, division into administrative districts largely remained unchanged after thedissolution of the Soviet Union.[citation needed] The term "district" ("raion") is used to refer to an administrative division of afederal subject or to a district of a big city.
In two federal subjects, however, the terminology was changed to reflect national specifics: inSakha, where they are known asulus (улус), and inTuva, where they are known askozhuun (кожуун).[1]
Within theframework of administrative divisions, the administrative districts are on the same level of hierarchy as thecities of federal subject significance and may be further subdivided intotowns of district significance,urban-type settlements of district significance, andselsoviets, although the exact terms for these entities vary from one federal subject to another.
Within theframework of municipal divisions, the municipal districts are on the same level of hierarchy as urban okrugs and are further subdivided into urban settlements, rural settlements, or both. Municipal districts are commonly formed within the boundaries of existing administrative districts, although in practice there are some exceptions to this rule.
A municipal district (муниципа́льный райо́н) is a type ofmunicipal formation which comprises a group of urban or rural settlements, as well as inter-settlement territories, sharing a common territory. The concept of the municipal districts was introduced in the early 2000s and codified on the federal level during the 2004 municipal reform.
Municipal districts are commonly formed within the boundaries of existing administrative districts, although in practice there are some exceptions to this rule—Sortavalsky Municipal District in theRepublic of Karelia, for example, is formed around the town ofSortavala, which neither has a status of nor is a part of any administrative district.
Many major cities in Russia—except forfederal cities ofMoscow andSaint Petersburg—are divided into city districts. Such city districts are usually considered to be administrative divisions of the city and prior to 2014 could not be a separate municipal formation. Examples of such city districts areSovetsky City District inNizhny Novgorod andAdlersky City District inSochi.
TheRepublic of Crimea is a federal subject of Russia formed on the territory of theCrimean Peninsula, which is disputed between Russia andUkraine. Within the Russian legal framework, the districts of theAutonomous Republic of Crimea (an administrative division of Ukraine) continue to be in use. Thefederal city ofSevastopol is also located on the peninsula, with its districts having a status similar to that of the districts of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Along with Crimea, the federal subjects of theDonetsk People's Republic,Kherson Oblast, theLuhansk People's Republic andZaporozhye Oblast also continues to use the same districts prior to the 2020 reforms.[citation needed]