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The Red Belt or Red Zone (
Russian: Красный пояс) was a group of
Russian regions which gave stable support to the
Communist Party of the Russian Federation and other left parties in
local and federal elections. The term came into wide use from the mid-1990s after Communist candidates won a number of regions from non-Communist opposition candidates. The "red zone" comprised predominantly
agricultural areas of
Central Russia, the
national republics of the
North Caucasus, as well as a number of the southern regions of
Siberia and the
Far East. The agricultural areas in the "Red Zone" were being privatized while the rest of Russia was a more open market.[1]
With the coming to power of
Vladimir Putin (Acting
President from 31 December 1999) and reduced support for the Communist Party, the "red belt" ceased to exist.[citation needed]
Reasons
In 1999, the regions of the "red zone", according to the analyst Rostislav Turovsky, included the
Smolensk,
Bryansk,
Kaluga,
Orel,
Kursk,
Belgorod,
Ryazan,
Lipetsk,
Tambov,
Voronezh,
Penza,
Ulyanovsk,
Saratov,
Volgograd and
Astrakhan regions. They had a high proportion of agricultural workers, destitute industrial workers, unemployed people and a high degree of conservatism. However, with the economic development of different regions, they are not among the most depressed. Turov noted strong support for the Communist Party in the North Caucasus (except in
Ingushetia). In the territories and regions of the North Caucasus, a predominantly Russian population of this area support Communist candidates, in his opinion, due to the same reasons as in the rest of the "red zone". In the national republics (
Karachay-Cherkessia,
Dagestan and
North Ossetia) support is due to
nostalgia for the Soviet era, when these poor areas experienced ethno-political and socio-economic stability. In
the Urals, and to the east of them, Turovskii notes strong pro-communist sentiment in predominantly industrial regions such as
Orenburg,
Kurgan,
Omsk,
Novosibirsk,
Chita Oblast and
Altai Krai, as well as in agricultural areas and in districts of mostly Russian national composition (the
Altai Republic, the
Ust-Orda Buryat AO and the
Jewish AO).[citation needed] Support for the Communists started to weaken once the economic depression of the 1990s ended and both economic and political stability returned in the early 2000s.