Founded: 1947

Acting Governor: Alexander Khoroshavin (former mayor of Okha) 

Former governor Ivan Pavlovich Malakhov resigned in August 2007 following criticism by Presdent Putin of the region's response to an earthquaqe near the town of Nevelsk. 

Federation Council Representative: Boris Nikitovich Tretyak (legislative, term expires October 2008)

Duma deputy: Ivan Andreyevich Zhdakaev (Sakhalin district)(KPRF)

Population:  546,500 (2002 census)

Capital:  Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (population 174,700), 10,417 km from Moscow

Federal district:  Far Eastern

Economic region: Far East

Time zone:  Moscow +7, GMT +10, EST +15

Geography: Sakhalin Region is spread over 59 islands. It was formed from the former Sakhalin Region, Khabarovsk Territory, and territories that became Russian possessions after the victory over Japan in World War II. The region includes Sakhalin Island, the adjoining small islands, and the Kuril Islands. It is located on the eastern shores of the Eurasian mainland in the transition zone between the continent and the Pacific Ocean.
(Click for close-up)

 

Urban population: 87%, Rural population: 13%

Ethnic make-up: more than 110 nationalities including Russians (81.7%), Ukrainians (6.5%), Koreans (4.9%), Belarussians (1.6%) and Tatars (1.5%)

Economy: While the region's location makes fishing an important economic sector, Sakhalin Region is the only place in the Far East where oil and gas are produced. The oil and gas industry is concentrated on North Sakhalin. There are 58 known oil and gas fields in the region (see map below).

CLICK HERE FOR SAKHLIN ECONOMY IN-DEPTH 

History 

Flint from the neoloithic stone age has been found at Dui and Kusunai in Sakhalin, whose indigenous peoples include the Ainu and the Nivkh tribes, amongst others. The Ming Dynasty Chinese knew the island as Kuyi and controlled it for a short period in the 15th century.

In an attempt to colonize the island the Japanese established a settlement (Ootomari) in 1679. Russia started occupying the island, with an army made up of convicts, from the 18th century onwards.

Sakhalin became known to Europeans from the travels of Ivan Moskvitin and Martin Gerritz de Vries in the 17th century, and still better from those of Jean-François de La Pérouse (1787) and Ivan Krusenstern (1805). Both, however, regarded it as a peninsula, and were unaware of the existence of the Mamiya Strait or Strait of Tartary, which was discovered in 1809 by Mamiya Rinzo.

On the basis of it being an extension of Hokkaidō, geographically and culturally, Japan unilaterally proclaimed sovereignty over the whole island in 1845, as well as the Kuril Islands. However, the Russian navigator Gennady Nevelskoy in 1849 definitively recorded the existence and navigability of this strait and - in defiance of the Qing and Japanese claims; Russian settlers established coal mines, administration facilities, schools, prisons, churches on the island.

n 1855, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimoda, which declared that both nationals could inhabit the island: Russians in the north, and Japanese in the south, without a clear boundary between. Russia also agreed to dismantle its military base at Ootomari. Under the Treaty of Aigun and Convention of Peking following the Opium War, China lost claim to all territories north of Heilongjiang (Amur) and east of Ussuri, including Sakhalin, to Russia. A penal colony was established on Sakhalin in 1857, but the southern part of the island was held by the Japanese until the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875), when Japan ceded it to Russia in exchange for the Kuril Islands. The 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth granted the southern part of the island below 50° N reverting to Japan; with Russia retaining the other three-fifths.

Following the Yalta Conference in August 1945 the Soviet Union took over the control of Sakhalin. The Soviet attack on South Sakhalin started on 11 August 1945, as a part of Operation August Storm, four days before the Japan surrendered, following the bombing of Hiroshima. No final peace treaty has been signed and the status of four neighbouring islands remains disputed.

The resignation of former governor Malakhov, and his replacement by Khoroshavin was widely seen as the result of tension between Rosneft and Gazprom. Malakhov was reported to have been too accommodating to foreign companies, while Khoroshavin was mayor of Okha, where Rosneft have a major office. Regardless, Presdient Putin's anger at the emergency response to the plight of 2000 people rendered homeless by the August '07 earthquake was more than enough pressure for any regional head to bear, and Malakhov's resignation was duly forthcoming.

Malakhov was criticized for arriving in Nevelsk only two days after the earthquaqe and the United Russia Party, of which he is a member, was dissatisfied with its weak local position. The party came in second in local legislative elections in 2004 behind a Rodina-based bloc. Malakhov took office in 2003 after governor Igor Farkhutdinov was killed in a car wreck.

Geology

On May 28, 1995, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale occurred, killing 2,000 people in the town of Neftegorsk. In August 2007 two earthquakes, teh first measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale, the second 5.9, struck off the southern tip of the island. The quakes occurred within a few hours of eachother, striking most potently at the port town of Nevelsk, leaving some 2000 people homeless foloowing damage to over 30 apartment buildings.

Official website: http://www.adm.sakhalin.ru

Contact Information
Governor
Ivan Pavolvich Malakov
39 Kommunistichestky prospekt
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk 693011
Tel: +7 (4242) 72 19 02
Fax: +7 (4242) 72 18 01
Email: ad_kanc@adm.sakhalin.ru

Regional Duma:
37 Ulitsa Chekhova
Yuzhno-Sakhlinsk 693011
Email: duma@duma.sakhalin.ru

Press service contact
Nadezhda Pavlovna Mechenko
Tel.:+7 (4242) 42 98 83