Khabarovsk Krai

   An administrative province of the Russian Federation. Part of the Far Eastern Federal District and Economic Region, Khabarovsk is a prorupt province that stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the Amur River in the south. Within Russia, it is bordered by Magadan, Sakha, Amur, and Primorsky. It shares an international border with China, contains the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, and is separated from the Sakhalin Oblast by only a few kilometers at the Strait of Tatary.

   Khabarovsk’s northern geography is dominated by the taiga; in the south, it is temperate broadleaf forest. Much of the province is mountainous, with the Jugjur and Bureya being the largest ranges. It is Russia’s fourth-largest federal subject, covering 788,600 square kilometers, and has a population of approximately 1.5 million. Ethnic Russians make up 90 percent of the population; ethnic minorities indigenous to the area include Nanays, Evenks, Ulchi, Nivks, Udege, Negidals, and Orochs. Other minorities include Ukrainians, ethnic Koreans, Yakuts, and Tatars.

   Forestry and fishing are the region’s major economic drivers; petroleum refining and shipbuilding are also key components of the economy. The region is an important transit zone for air traffic to and from Japan. Khabarovsk has well-developed trading relationships with Japan, Canada, and China, as well as other Pacific Rim countries.

   Viktor Ishayev, a former engineer at a shipbuilding plant, is the region’s long-standing, pro-market executive. In September 1991, he became head of the regional administration. In 2001, he gained the post of regional governor, to which he was reelected in 2004 and then reappointed by Vladimir Putin in 2007. He was one of the last popularly elected regional governors in Russia and was able to win Moscow’s favor despite his strong regionalist orientation. Ishayev has been vocal about China’s poor environmental record and its deleterious effects on Khabarovsk. His condemnations of Chinese pollution of the Amur River have been especially harsh, suggesting that his southern neighbor is destroying the livelihoods and traditional culture of the region’s indigenous ethnic minorities, who depend on subsistence fishing.

   Despite his opposition to Beijing’s environmental record, Ishayev did not publicly decry Moscow’s decision to relinquish control of Tarabarov (Yinlong) Island and approximately half of Bolshoy Ussuriysky (Heixiazi) Island, both formerly part of Khabarovsk, to China in 2004. Despite North Korean propaganda to the contrary, the Khabarovsk village of Vyatskoye was the birthplace of Kim Jong-il, whose father was the commander of Soviet-controlled Korean military units stationed in the province.