Federal districts of Russia

The federal districts (Russian: федера́льные округа́, federalnyye okruga) are groupings of the federal subjects of Russia. Federal districts are not provisioned by the Constitution of Russia and are not the constituent units of the country, but exist purely for the convenience of operation and governing by federal government agencies. Each district includes several federal subjects and each federal district has a presidential envoy titled a Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in a Federal District.

The federal districts and positions of Plenipotentiary Representatives were originally created in 2000 by Presidential Decree "to ensure implementation of the President of the Russian Federation of its constitutional powers". Plenipotentiary Representatives are appointed by the President and are employees of the Presidential Administration.

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President Vladimir Putin established seven federal districts in May 2000.

On January 19, 2010 the new North Caucasian Federal District split from the Southern Federal District.

On March 2014, after the Russian military intervention in and annexation of Crimea, the Crimean Federal District was established. The legality of this annexation is disputed by most states as well as NATO. On July 28, 2016 the Crimean Federal District was abolished and merged into the Southern Federal District in order to "improve the governance".

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