Evaluations of the consequences of the connection of Perm region and Komi-Permyak autonomous district

One of the last administrative and territorial transformations was the unification of the regions of Russia in the early 2000s, as a result of which the Perm Krai was formed through the accession of the Komi-Permyak Autonomous District to the Perm Region. The priority task of this reform was to accelerate the development of the Autonomous District with the help of an economically stronger neighbor, but after more than 10 years from the date of the merger, the assessment of the consequences of this reform remains ambiguous. The material of the study was the corpus of relevant texts from federal and regional media, as well as journalistic blogs containing appraisal statements by politicians and officials, public figures and representatives of NGOs, as well as ordinary residents of the former Komi-Permyak Autonomous District and the Perm Region. The methodological basis of the study was critical geopolitics using the content and discourse analysis methods. The study showed that many of the tasks that have been put before the merger of the two entities have not been fully implemented and there are layers of society that are negatively related to the consequences of this transformation, although previously they mostly supported it. One of the possible reasons for this can be considered the insufficient attention of the new authorities to the formation of a unified identity of a new territorial community that successfully integrates the ethnic components of the Autonomous District. With any changes related to the territorial organization of national districts, it is necessary to pay attention not only to the economic and administrative side of the transformation, but also to cultural and spatial-identity components. If these factors are not taken into account, then the authorities risk not only deteriorating the quality of life of people in this region, but also creating the ground for ethnic conflicts.