Ural Federal Okrug appeared on the political map of Russia 15 years ago

Seven federal regions with the institute of plenipotentiary envoys of the President were created 15 years ago in Russia, on the 13th of May of 2000, according to the presidential decree.

Thus, Vladimir Putin reorganized the preexisting institution of presidential envoys in regions of Russia. It was done for increase in effectiveness of activity of federal bodies of the state power and perfection of system of control over fulfillment of their decisions. Tasks of a presidential plenipotentiary envoy include, first of all, organization of control over fulfillment of decisions of federal bodies of the power, presentation of regular reports to the President about state of affairs in a region, mediation within interaction of presidential structures with bodies of the state power of subjects of the Federation. Central, Northwestern, Southern, Volga, Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern Federal regions were created. Ural Federal Okrug includes Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Kurgan Oblast, Tyumen Oblast and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. The total area of the territorial federal region takes almost 11 percent of the area of the Russian Federation and exceeds the area of the territories of Germany, France, Great Britain and Spain taken together. The city of Yekaterinburg is the administrative center of Ural Federal Okrug.