The Southern Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. Its territory lies mostly on the Pontic–Caspian steppe of Southern Russia. The Southern Federal District shares borders with Ukraine, the Azov Sea, and the Black Sea in the west, and Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea in the east.

History

The Southern Federal District was originally called the "North Caucasian Federal District" when it was founded on 13 May 2000, but was renamed for political reasons on 21 June 2000. On 19 January 2010, the Southern Federal District was split in two, with its former southern territories forming a new North Caucasian Federal District.

On 28 July 2016, Crimean Federal District (which contains the Republic of Crimea and the Federal city of Sevastopol) was abolished and merged into Southern Federal District in order to "improve the governance". Crimean Federal District was established on 21 March 2014 after the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. The federal district includes both the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol, both recognized as part of Ukraine by most of the international community. Its population was 13,854,334 (62.4% urban) according to the 2010 Census, living in an area of . A translation provided by Garant-Internet instead uses the term "subjects of the Russian Federation".

Tom Fennell, a translator, told the 2008 American Translators Association conference that "constituent entity of the Russian Federation" is a better translation than "subject". This was supported by Tamara Nekrasova, Head of Translation Department at Goltsblat BLP, saying in a 2011 presentation at a translators conference that "constituent entity of the Russian Federation is more appropriate than subject of the Russian Federation (subject would be OK for a monarchy)".

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center;"

|-

! colspan="8" |

|-

! #

! Flag

! Coat of Arms

! Constituent entities

! Area in km<sup>2</sup>]]

Presidential plenipotentiary envoys

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|-

!rowspan="2"|No.

!rowspan="2"|Name (envoy)

!rowspan="2"|Photo

!colspan="3"|Term of office

!rowspan="2"|Appointed by

|-

!Start of term

!End of term

!Length of service

|-

|1

|Viktor Kazantsev

|70px

| 18 May 2000

| 9 March 2004

| ( days)

!style="font-weight:normal" rowspan=4|Vladimir Putin

|-

| 2

|Vladimir Yakovlev

|70px

| 9 March 2004

| 13 September 2004

|

|-

|3

|Dmitry Kozak

|70px

|13 September 2004

|24 September 2007

| ( days)

|-

|4

|Grigory Rapota

|70px

|24 September 2007

|14 May 2008

| days

|-

|5

|Vladimir Ustinov

|70px

|14 May 2008

|present

| ( days)

!style="font-weight:normal"|Dmitry Medvedev

|-

|}

References

Notes

  • Southern Federal District
  • News and events of Russian South