Away from the economic hubs of Moscow and St Petersburg or the oil-rich oblasts, many of Russia's regions suffer much higher poverty and have not attracted the investment necessary to alleviate such problems. In a country of more than 1000 banks, many of the weakest players are based in these regions, and they have been hard hit by the global liquidity squeeze, further delaying economic convergence.
The Southern Federal District (SFD), home to 16% of Russia's population, is a case in point. A United Nations Development Program report published in 2007 estimated incomes and investment per capita for the SFD at half the national average, and unemployment rates double the average.
