PETERSBURG CASE STUDY |9| MODERN MIGRATION AND THE CHALLENGE Of XENOPHObIA IN THE RUSSIAN fEDERATION In spite of great ethnic and religious diversity among the Russian population (the 2002 census recorded 160 ethnic groups and about 30 subethnic groups in Russia) and the long-term coexistence of various ethnic groups within the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, a large proportion of the populat. [...] In a commonwealth that contained national republics in the active stage of the “parade of sovereignties,” the weakening of the federal center and its inability to mobilize diverse groups around common themes and solidarity naturally led to the willingness of a number of political leaders to construct their own regional ethnic identities.31 These processes strengthened the regionalization of Russia. [...] According to the Komi Republic’s constitution, the “indigenous people” were hailed as the source of statehood, and the right of law-making was granted only to the congress of the titular people; as per the constitution of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), the president of the republic must henceforth be born in Yakutia.33 ST. [...] in most of the republics, the ‘titular’ nation comprises less than half the population), ethnicization of the distribution of authority, recruitment, formation of workers’ collectives, etc., often leads to national and clan solidarity, and exacerbates interethnic tensions.”34 In the framework of a democratic regime, the situation was quite incongruous; under the new regional constitutional norms,. [...] In 2002, ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation comprised over 82 percent of the population, whereas in 1989 Russians in the Soviet Union accounted for no more than 51 percent, and in the Russian Empire, Russians comprised 44.7 percent of the population in 1897 and 43.4 percent in 1719.39 During the Yeltsin administration, outcomes of political transformation for the ethnic majority follow: • W.
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