Penza Oblast

   An administrative region of the Russian Federation. Located within the Volga Federal District and Economic Region, Penza occupies 43,200 square kilometers of territory in the Volga uplands. It has a population of 1.4 million, 86 percent of whom are ethnic Russians, with a significant minority of Tatars and Mordvins. Its neighbors include the Republic of Mordoviya, Ryazan, Ulyanovsk, Saratov, and Tambov. The regional capital, which sits on the Sura River, is a major transit hub for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The economy is driven by agriculture (grains, vegetables, and livestock), engineering, woodworking, and light industry. Part of the Red Belt, voters supported Communist candidates in the early 1990s. In 1998, Vasily Bochkarev was elected on a platform of pragmatic reform; he was reelected in 2002, narrowly defeating his Communist opponent. Vladimir Putin reappointed Bochkarev in 2005. He has signed deals with Gazprom and Lukoil to support the region with energy and maintained an international profile with visits abroad, including a trip to Great Britain to lure English farmers to the region. In the wake of Dmitry Medvyedev’s recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, he moved to establish economic relations with the breakaway Georgian republics in 2008.