Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 29th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG1: Local Government (Physical) Author(s) Elizaveta Kuznetsova Higher School of Economics Moscow Russian Federation Title Analysis of the run and consequences of Municipal reform started in 2019 in Russia(based on example of Komi-Permyak District) File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Elizaveta Kuznetsova Abstract The paper is devoted to analysis of the run and consequences of Municipal reform started in 2019 in Russia. The Federal Law No. 87-FZ of May 1, 2019 (amendments to the Federal Law "On General Principles of Organization of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation") suggested a new type of municipal formations as a municipal district. It is supposed that most of rural municipalities in Russia will to be transferred into bigger formations until January 1, 2025. That process includes the dissolution of rural and urban settlement administrations and redistribution of powers to the new authorities of municipal districts. In the paper the results of the field research conducted in autumn 2019 to the Komi-Permyak District, an administrative-territorial unit with a special status within the Perm Territory, will be presented. On the basis of the field materials of the expedition, notable metamorphoses of recent years in the life of small settlements in Russia are discussed: the municipal reform associated with the formation of municipal districts and changes connected to the reform. What’s more, a theoretical analysis of the municipal reform stages and its efficiency in other areas are presented. The research question of the paper is “How the reform works in poor, subsidized areas and what problems may appear in transition period”. The question is answered both based on field research in and desk research of the legal acts created as an answer to a reform. Based on the interview the sample pattern of reformation is identified, marking key stages of the process, both with local government representatives attitudes to a reform. The relevance of the paper to the working group is associated with the reform’s novice approach to municipal organisation of Russia, which is to be considered as a challenge to oppressed rural areas. The areas undergo, in fact, a rejection of the two-tier model of local government. The changes are gradual: for about 10 years there has been a merger of rural settlements, their consolidation, then reorganisation into urban districts where the regional center is a relatively large city. And now a format of municipal district is introduced, generating new problems and restructurations to deal with.
