Krasnoyarsk Krai (Russian: Красноя́рский край, romanized: Krasnoyarskiy kray, IPA: [krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj]) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai) located in Siberia. Its administrative center is the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siberia, after Novosibirsk and Omsk. Comprising half of the Siberian Federal District, Krasnoyarsk Krai is the largest krai in Russia, the second-largest federal subject in the country after neighboring Sakha, and the third-largest country subdivision by area in the world. The krai covers an area of 2,366,797 square kilometers (913,825 sq mi), constituting roughly 13% of Russia's total area. Krasnoyarsk Krai has a population of 2,856,971 as of the 2021 Census.

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Krasnoyarsk Krai
Krai
Красноярский край
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Anthem of Krasnoyarsk Krai
Coordinates: 59°53′N 91°40′E
Country	Russia
Federal district	Siberian[1]
Economic region	East Siberian[2]
Administrative center	Krasnoyarsk
Government
• Body	Legislative Assembly[3]
• Governor[3]	Mikhail Kotyukov (Acting)[4]
Area [5]
• Total	2,366,797 km2 (913,825 sq mi)
• Rank	2nd
Population  (2021 Census)[6]
• Total	2,856,971
• Estimate  (2018)[7]	2,876,497
• Rank	14th
• Density	1.2/km2 (3.1/sq mi)
• Urban	79.3%
• Rural	20.7%
Time zone	UTC+7 (MSK+4 [8])
ISO 3166 code	RU-KYA
License plates	24, 84, 88, 124
OKTMO ID	04000000
Official languages	Russian[9]
Website	www.krskstate.ru

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The krai lies in the middle of Siberia, and occupies nearly half of the Siberian Federal District, almost splitting it in half, stretching 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) from the Sayan Mountains in the south along the Yenisei River to the Taymyr Peninsula in the north. It borders (counting clockwise from the sea) the Sakha Republic, Irkutsk, the Tuva Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Kemerovo, Tomsk, Tyumen Oblasts, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Kara Sea and Laptev Sea of the Arctic Ocean in the north.

The krai is located in the basin of the Arctic Ocean; a great number of rivers that flow through the krai drain into it eventually. The main rivers of the krai are the Yenisei, and its tributaries (from south to north): the Kan, the Angara, the Podkamennaya Tunguska, the Nizhnyaya Tunguska and the Tanama.

There are also several thousand lakes in the krai. The largest lakes include Beloye, Belyo, Glubokoye, Itat, Khantayskoye, Labas, Lama, Pyasina, Taymyr, and Yessey. The rivers and lakes are rich in fish.

The climate is strongly continental with large temperature variations during the year. Long winters and short, hot summers are characteristic for the central and southern regions where most of the krai's population lives. The territory of Krasnoyarsk Krai experiences conditions of three climate belts: arctic, subarctic, and humid continental. In the north there are less than 40 days with temperature above 10 °C (50 °F), while in the south there are 110-120 such days.

The average temperature in January is −36 °C (−32.8 °F) in the north and −18 °C (−0.4 °F) in the south. The average temperature in July is 5 to 10 °C (41 to 50 °F) in the north – where the most poleward tree line in the world is found at Ary-Mas – and +20 °C (68 °F) in the south. The annual precipitation is 316 millimeters (12.4 in) (up to 1,200 millimeters (47 in) in the foothills of the Sayan Mountains). Snow covers the central regions of the krai from early November until late March. The peaks of the Sayan Mountains higher than 2,400–2,600 metres (7,900–8,500 ft) and those of the Putorana Plateau higher than 1,000–1,300 metres (3,300–4,300 ft) are covered with permanent snow. Permafrost is absent at low altitudes south of Lesosibirsk, but as one moves north it grades from sporadic around the 58th parallel to extensive discontinuous around the 60th parallel and continuous north of the 63rd parallel.

The coastline contains several prominent peninsulas – from west to east the main ones are the Minina Peninsula, Mikhailov Peninsula, the Taymyr Peninsula (by far the largest, and itself containing the Zarya Peninsula, Oskara Peninsula and Chelyuskin Peninsula) and the Khara-Tumus Peninsula.

There are also a large number of islands off the krai's coast, the most prominent of which are (from west to east) Sibiryakov Island, Nosok Island, Dikson Island, Vern Island, Brekhovskiye Island (in the Yenisei Gulf), Krestovskiy Island, the Kamennye Islands, the Zveroboy Islands, the Labyrintovye Islands, the Plavnikovye Islands, Kolosovykh Island, the Mona Islands, Rykacheva Island, Gavrilova Island, Belukha and Prodolgovatyy Islands, the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, the Firnley Islands, the Heiberg Islands, Starokadomsky Island, Maly Taymyr Island, the Komsomolskaya Pravda Islands, the Faddey Islands, and the Saint Peter Islands. There are also a number of islands further out that fall under the administration of Krasnoyarsk Krai – the most prominent being Bolshoy Island, Sverdrup Island, the Izvestiy TSIK Islands, the Arkticheskiy Institut Islands, the Kirov Islands, Uyedineniya Island, Voronina Island, Severnaya Zemlya (the largest group), and Ushakov Island. The highest point of the krai is Grandiozny Peak in the Eastern Sayan Mountains at an elevation of 2,922 meters (9,587 ft).

In the south there is a Ergaki Nature Park which is a protected area of Krasnoyarsk Krai. It contains the Western Sayan Mountains.^[10] The park was established in 2005 and it covers an area of 342,873 ha (847,260 acres).^[11] It is bordered by the Yenisei highway.^[12]

According to archaeologists, the first people reached Siberia circa 40,000 BC.^[13] The Andronovo culture, a group of Bronze Age peoples, lived in the area around 2000–900 BC, the remains of which were discovered in 1914 near the village of Andronovo, Uzhursky District. The grave-mounds and monuments of the Scythian culture in Krasnoyarsk Krai belong to the 7th century BC and are some of the oldest in Eurasia. A prince's grave, the Kurgan Arshan, discovered in 2001, is also located in the krai.

Russian settlement of the area (mostly by Cossacks) began in the 17th century. After the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway the Russian colonization of the area strongly increased. In 1822, the Yeniseysk Governorate was created with Krasnoyarsk as its administrative center that covered territory very similar to that of the current krai.

During both the Tsarist and the Soviet times, the territory of Krasnoyarsk Krai was used as a place of exile of political enemies, actual or alleged. The first leaders of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, were exiled to what is now the krai in 1897–1900 and 1903, respectively. In Stalin's era, numerous Gulag camps were located in the region.

On June 30, 1908, in the basin of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, there occurred a powerful explosion most likely to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometers (3.1–6.2 miles) above the Earth's surface. The force of the explosion is estimated to be about 10–15 megatons. It flattened more than 2,000 square kilometers (490,000 acres) of pine forest and killed thousands of reindeer.

Krasnoyarsk Krai was created in 1934 after disaggregation of the West Siberian and East Siberian Krais and later included Taymyr and Evenk Autonomous Okrugs and Khakas Autonomous Oblast. In 1991, Khakassia separated from the krai and became a republic within the Russian Federation. On January 1, 2007, following a referendum on the issue held on April 17, 2005, the territories of Evenk and Taymyr Autonomous Okrugs were merged into the krai.

During the Soviet period, the high authority in the krai was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Krasnoyarsk CPSU Committee (who in reality had the most authority), the chairman of the krai Soviet (legislative power), and the chairman of the krai Executive Committee (executive power). Since the Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the demise of the CPSU, the head of the krai administration, and eventually the governor has been appointed or elected alongside the elected regional parliament.

The Charter of Krasnoyarsk Krai is the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Krasnoyarsk Krai is the province's regional standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The legislative assembly consists of 52 deputies. 22 of them are elected in 22 one-mandate electoral districts by plurality system, 2 in Taymyr, 2 in Evenkia, and 26 are elected by proportional system from the lists offered by political parties. The highest executive body is the Oblast Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day-to-day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as the guarantor of the observance of the krai Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.

In December 1991, president Boris Yeltsin appointed Arkady Veprev as the first governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai. In January 1993 Yeltsin appointed Valery Zubov as the second governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai. In Krasnoyarsk Territory governor elections were called. Zubov was elected in a universal election for a five-year term. The Legislative Assembly of Krasnoyarsk Krai was created as well.

In 1998, Zubov lost in the gubernatorial election to General Aleksandr Lebed, a well-known politician in all of Russia. In 2002 Lebed died in a helicopter accident.

In 2002, Alexander Khloponin, the governor of Taymyr Autonomous Okrug and an influential businessman, was elected a governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai. In 2007, he was nominated by president Vladimir Putin for re-election, and the legislative assembly elected Khloponin for the second term.

In 2010, after Khloponin was promoted to the office of the president's envoy in the North Caucasian Federal District, Lev Kuznetsov, a businessman and politician from Khloponin's circle, became the new governor of the krai. After Kuznetsov, Viktor Tolokonsky became Governor September 2017. After Tolokonsky, Aleksandr Uss became the Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai where he remains in the role today.

Krasnoyarsk Krai is represented in the Federation Council of Russia, the upper house of the Russian parliament by two senators. In 2007, eight deputies were elected to the State Duma from Krasnoyarsk regional lists of different political parties.

Over 95% of the cities, a majority of the industrial enterprises, and all of the agriculture are concentrated in the south of the krai.

Krasnoyarsk Krai consists of forty-four districts and sixteen towns of district significance. Two of the districts (Evenkiysky and Taymyrsky; the former autonomous okrugs) have special status.

Population (including former Taymyr and Evenk Autonomous Okrugs): 2,856,971 (2021 Census);^[14] 2,828,187 (2010 Census);^[15] 3,023,525 (2002 Census);^[16] 3,596,260 (1989 Census).^[17]

Ethnic groups: The population of the krai mostly consists of Russians, and some other peoples of the former Soviet Union. The indigenous Siberian peoples make up no more than 1% of the population.

The 2021 Census reported the following ethnic composition:^[18]

• 100,621 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.^[19]

Vital statistics for 2022:^[20][21]

• Births: 26,401 (9.3 per 1,000)
• Deaths: 38,428 (13.5 per 1,000)

Total fertility rate (2022):^[22]
1.43 children per woman

Life expectancy (2021):^[23]
Total — 68.35 years (male — 63.56, female — 73.13)

• List of chairmen of the Legislative Assembly of Krasnoyarsk Krai