Political depopulation of municipal periphery: political and electoral consequences of municipal unifications based on the example of the Perm region

Introduction: the process of municipalities’ unification in the Perm region is nearly completed, resulting in establishing one-level system of urban and municipal districts to replace the two-level local government system that included both urban and rural settlements. The abolition of settlements is accompanied by reducing the number of local deputies and reconfiguration of local political space. Regardless of fairly large amounts of statistical data we know very little about any concrete political and electoral consequences of municipalities unification for political actors in ex-settlements.