Krasnodar Region is located in the south of Russia, the Southwestern part of the North Caucasus to be the southernmost region of Russia. The territory is located roughly between the equator and the pole, at the latitude of Northern Italy and Southern France; the 45th parallel divides it into two approximately equal parts.

The territory borders with the Rostov Region in the North-East, with the Stavropol Territory – in the East, with Abkhazia – in the South. From the North-West and the South-West, the territory is washed with the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. The total length of the territory’s borders is 1,540 km: 800 km of them are overland, and 740 km are oversea. The greatest length of the territory from the North to the South is 327 km, and from the West to the East is 360 km.

The region is included in the Southern Federal District of the Russian Federation. The region comprises the Republic of Adygeya.

The biggest municipal entities are Krasnodar (1.4 mln. people), Sochi urban resort (493 K people), Novorossiysk (331 K people), Armavir (191 K people) and Anapa urban resort (186 K people). The administrative centre of the territory is Krasnodar that celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018.

The territory is divided into two extremely different parts: the northern plains and the southern mountainous ones. The plain area – the Kuban Lowland – takes two-thirds of the territory. The Southern area is formed by systems of ridges of the Western Caucasus, a stripe of adjacent foothills and a narrow line of the Black Sea coast.

Water resources

Water resources of the Krasnodar Region are presented with territorial sea waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as rivers, estuaries, lakes, water reservoirs, multiple channels of hydrologic systems and underground waters. Kuban River with a total length of 870 km and a river basin of 57,900 sq. km belongs to the category of large rivers. Kuban River is the main waterway which is a water-supply source for the population, business and industrial activities on the territory of the region. The length of Kuban in the Krasnodar Region is 662 km.

The Black Sea is located between the Caucasus Mountains in the North and the Pontic Mountains in the South. In the North-East the Black Sea connects with the Sea of Azov via the shallow Kerch Strait; in the South-West, it connects with the Sea of Marmara via the Bosphorus Strait, and through the Sea of Marmara – with the Mediterranean Sea. That’s how The Black Sea is connected with the Atlantic Ocean.
The Sea of Azov is a terminal basin in a raw of the Don, the Kuban River and rivers of the Northern and North-Eastern Priazovie. The length of the coastline in the Krasnodar Region is 550 km.

Fauna

The animal world of the Krasnodar Region is diverse and represented with 101 species of mammals, 37 species of reptiles and amphibians, 340 species of birds and 110 species of fishes. Besides, a lot of animals have been listed in the Russian Red Book.

Located on the border of middle and subtropical latitudes, at the junction of flatlands and mountains, the territory is notable for a variety and versatility of weather conditions. The climate on the largest part of the territory is moderately continental, though it’s subtropical on the coast of the Black Sea (to the South from Tuapse). The average temperature on the flat land in January is minus 3-5 degrees, in July – plus 22-24 degrees.

The duration of the warm period (the period with the atmospheric temperature above 0°C) on the most part of the territory is 9-10 months, while on the coast of the Black Sea the temperature actually never drops below zero degrees, i.e. there are only a few days of the cold period when subzero figures can be observed.

Every popular urban resort of the Krasnodar Region has its individual climate patterns. Anapa is famous for the greatest solar activity (2,450 solar hours per year). Novorossiysk is notable for a rare atmospheric phenomenon – bora, the gusting wind with a speed of up to 40 m/s. Gelendzhik is a record-breaker when it comes to the amount of precipitation – in the average, 800 mm of precipitation occurs in 365 days here.

Still, the climate in the territory is one of the most favourable for living and working in Russia. The Krasnodar Region is the warmest Russian region; the average period of time when there’s the sunny weather during daylight is 2,300 hours per year.

The Krasnodar Region belongs to the time-zone marked as the MoscowTimeZone (MSK) as per the international standard. The GMT offset (in comparison with UTC) is +3:00.

A prevailing nation is the Russians who consider themselves a special sub-ethnos – Kuban Cossacks who speak Russian with elements of the Ukrainian language. The Armenians (the area of Armavir) and the Greeks also live compactly in the Krasnodar Region. Also, a significant number of Ukrainians reside in the territory.

Religion

Representatives of 32 confessions reside on the territory of Kuban: 86% of them are Orthodox Christians, 6% are parishioners of the Armenian Apostolic Church, 3% are Muslims, 5% are representatives of other religions.

In total, more than 700 organizations that represent adepts of 28 religious trends are registered in the Krasnodar Region. The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest in number – both by a number of followers and its influence on the social and political situation in the territory. More than 300 congregations of the Yekaterinodar-Kuban Diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church are registered in the Krasnodar Region.

The Krasnodar Region is rightfully called a prop of the economics of the country: the region leads in construction, industry, transport. It’s here where the largest international airports and railway hubs are located, and even the remote corners of the territory are laced with a well-developed network of motorways. The southern sea gates of Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Temryuk and Yeysk provide direct access to international waterways. That allows the Krasnodar Region defending Russian interests in the areas of the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea Economic Cooperation.

The transport complex of the territory is one of the most important elements for the economy of Kuban, as well as for the entire Russian Federation. A network of high-quality motorways and railways threads all the territory providing favourable conditions for business activity. Seaports of the Krasnodar Region are main Russia’s access to countries of the Mediterranean region; they provide up to 40% of cargo turn-over of all Russian ports. Two largest international transport and energy projects of Russia are set up here: the Blue Stream Gas Pipeline between Russia and Turkey and terminals of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium.

The industrial complex of the Krasnodar Region extensively features energy providers, mining businesses, enterprises of the processing industry, where leading positions are held by food manufacturing plants that are well known in Russia and far beyond its borders.

More than 60 types of commercial minerals have been discovered in the mines of Kuban. Mainly they are deposited in foothills or mountainous areas. There are reserves of oil, natural gas, marl, iodide-bromine waters, marble, limestone, sandstone, gravel, quartz sand, iron and apatite ores, rock salt.

No other region of Russia can be compared with Kuban by a level of viticulture development. The ‘amber berries’ are grown by 51 households here, while 34 of them process them to produce quiet, sparkling, white and red – but always noble and natural drinks that are notable for their flavour and quality far beyond the borders of the country.

The territory is proud of its construction sector. Over recent years, the Krasnodar Region has been a stable leader by volumes of housing commissioning. It’s important that aside from multi-storey housing, great attention is paid to creating favourable conditions for development of low rise private housing construction taking traditions and specificities of the region into account.

The transport infrastructure ensures transferring tourists and vacationers to the coast of the Black Sea of the Krasnodar Region – the main sanatorium-and-health-resort of the federal importance which is annually visited by more than 14 mln tourists, as well as serves transit cargo flows performed in the framework of the Russian export activity, including oil export.

The Krasnodar Region can boast an extremely beneficial geographic location which allows creating convenient logistics. There are 9 year-round seaports in the Krasnodar Region (two of them are among TOP 3 ports by cargo turnover in Russia) that provide transfer of more than 200 mln tonnes of cargos per year. The region is the largest transport hub: it has direct access to the international ways of foreign trade to Europe, The Mediterranean, the Middle East and Central Asia. It allows the processing of about 30% of foreign trade and transit cargos in Russia.

An extensive network of motorways and railways is created on the territory of the region. The Krasnodar Region holds one of leading positions in the Russian Federation by the number, density and quality of motorways (447 km of motorways per 1,000 sq. km) with a total length of about 40 K km.

Passenger and cargo air transportation in the region is performed through international airports of federal importance in Krasnodar (Pashkovsky), Sochi (Adler), Anapa (Vityazevo), and Gelendzhik for domestic airlines. The average daily flying intensity in summer achieves 50 pair flights, and their maximum amount falls on the end of August – up to 70. The average number of flights to the Sochi airport is 55, to Krasnodar – 45, to Anapa – 25, to Gelendzhik – 10. The aggregate traffic flow in airports of Kuban is over 10 mln passengers per year.

Currently, the main volume of passenger and cargo air transportation is performed through airports of Krasnodar and Sochi (83% of the total amount of transportations). About 7% of all passenger air transportation in Russia falls on the Krasnodar Region.

In total, there are more than 40 air companies that carry out flights to the Krasnodar Region, and 20 of them provide the main volume of transportation in historically formed regular directions connecting airports of the territory with Moscow, Saint Petersburg, the largest cities of Ural, Siberia, the Far East, CIS countries, neighbouring countries and beyond. As for international traffic, passengers are transported to most countries of neighbouring countries and beyond, Asian countries of the Middle East, and Western Europe. Most of the flights are carried out using comfortable aircrafts of foreign manufacture, such as Boing 737-500, 737-800, and Airbus 319, 320, as well as Russian aeroplanes SSJ 100 (Sukhoi Super Jet), Tu-204/214. The main Russian airlines that carry out flights to the airports of the territory are: Aeroflot, Rossiya, S7 Airlines, Ural Airlines, Utair, Pobeda, Nordavia, Red Wings, RoyalFlight, Alrosa, Nord Wind, UVT AERO, Yamal, Yakutia. The main foreign air carriers: AustrianAirlines, Belavia, MahanAir, Pegasus, SomonAir, FlyDubai, UzbekistanAirways, TurkishAirlines.

Currently, rail operation in the Krasnodar Region is provided by long-distance trains (Federal Passenger Company JSC) and suburban trains (Kuban Express-Prigorod OJSC, North Caucasus Suburban Passenger Company JSC). The length of railroads in the region is 2,200 km or 34.5% of all the length of the North Caucasus Railway. The suburban railway network of the Krasnodar Region consists of 43 routes of regular rail links that are daily operated by about 80 pairs of trains: 20 pairs of them are highly comfortable Lastochka electrical trains that operate across the territory of the Sochi landfill. The number of passengers transported by railway transport amounted to 19,468,700 people in 2017, including 8,138,600 passengers of long-distance trains and 11,330,100 passengers of suburban trains.

In 2019 the region ranked 13th in the National Investment Climate Ranking in the Russian regions.

1A is the highest rank of investment attractiveness according to Expert-RA. In this rating, the Krasnodar Region belongs to the group of leading regions with maximum potential and minimal risks.

The Krasnodar Region steadily makes it to the TOP 5 constituent territories of the Russian Federation with the least investment risks for investors.

The credit rating of the Krasnodar Region (according to Expert-RA, the Russian Rating Agency ) is ruАА (a stable forecast).

The fifth place among Russian regions by the total volume of annually attracted investments (over the three last years (2015-2017) about 1.5 tln rubles of investments were attracted to the region in total). In the average, 40% of investments in the Southern Federal District fall on the Krasnodar Region. In the average, up to 70 largescale investment projects are being implemented in the Krasnodar Region (worth of more than 100 mln rubles) annually. 30% of them are projects worth more than 1 bln rubles.

The Krasnodar Region made it to the TOP 10 regions of the RF with the best quality of life (best on data provided by the Federal State Statistics Service, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Russia).

The Krasnodar Region is one of business tourism centres in Russia. Annually, about 500 events of congress tourism forms take place in the territory. Sochi is one of the most popular cities of the territory, where high-level intergovernmental meetings, international forums, exhibitions and seminars take place. Today Krasnodar and Sochi feature all the necessary infrastructure for holding largescale congress and exhibition events: there are venues, operators, specialists, hotels, transport, etc.

The largest venue in Krasnodar is the Expograd South Exhibition Complex featuring 4 exhibition pavilions with the area of more than 9,000 sq. m each, conference halls for roundtable discussions and meetings; required equipment; catering areas for participants, open outdoor spaces.
Due to the Olympics Sochi acquired an opportunity to transform the Olympic infrastructure into cultural and exhibition centres and sports centres.

Capitals of business and event tourism of the Krasnodar Region are Krasnodar and Sochi. This direction is also developing dynamically in Anapa, Gelendzhik and the Tuapsinsky District. The modern infrastructure of accommodation means, such as business centres, conference halls, respective equipment, personnel, additional services, allows organizing business events of any level and scale.

Based on the analysis of exhibitions held in the territory, it could be concluded that a share of specialized exhibitions in such industries as construction, food, agriculture, transport and communication, tourism has grown.

Formula 1 – Russian Grand Prix

Formula 1 Grand Prix in Sochi is one of the brightest international sports events in the framework of the Olympic heritage; it plays an important role for positioning of the Krasnodar as a unique place for tourists, including those who come from abroad. The highway is located on the territory of the Olympic Park and includes 16 turns. The length of the track is 5,848 meters. In the debut year, in 2014, the Russian Grand Prix was officially recognized the best Formula 1 stage in the season.

The Forum in Sochi is an annual event aimed at attracting investments, presenting priority investment projects of Russian regions and promotion of their potential to domestic and external markets.

Events of the Forum are traditionally attended by leaders of the Russian Government, authorities from the constituent territories of the Russian Federation, Russian and foreign top managers, heads of diplomatic missions, significant investors and leading business experts.

The First Kuban Economic Forum took place in Sochi in 2002 as a regional event aimed at increasing awareness of potential investors of the economy of the Krasnodar Region. In 2007 the Forum added ‘investment’ to its name, while Sochi that hosted the event received a status of the candidate city for the Olympic Games 2014. Over sixteen years the Forum has become one of the largest international business events in Russia. In 2018, more than 6,000 people from 63 countries of the world took part in the Russian Investment Forum.

YUGAGRO

YUGAGRO, the International Exhibition of Agricultural Machinery, Equipment and Materials for Crop Production - is the largest of this kind in Russia of agricultural machinery, equipment and materials for the production and processing of agricultural products (crop production).

Vinorus Krasnodar

The VinorusKrasnodar International Exhibition of Wine Products and Drinks, Equipment and Technologies for Vine Growing and Winemaking is the largest exhibition of wines and alcoholic beverages in the South of Russia. It features a wide range of alcoholic beverages, special grape wines, table and local wines, exclusive, vintage and garage wines, as well as wine accessories.

The cultural life is decked with promotions, forums and festivals the number of which achieves three or four hundred annually. The brightest and the most wide-scale ones are the ‘cultural assault’ of Moscow Arts Theater in Kuban; such festivals as Kuban Musical Spring, Golden Apple, Kinotavr, Cinemashock, Slavonic Literature Day, The Kuban Cossack, Kuban is the Address of Childhood, To the Glory of Kuban, to the Benefit of Russia; Living Culture; Legends of Taman; Kuban Plays Jazz and the Premiere Festival in the Uspensky District. A great interest of the audience and the creative community is provoked by international festivals, such as Young Ballet of the World, Opera without Borders, GG Jazz.

The Kuban Fair

The Kuban Fair is an agricultural exhibition that takes place in Krasnodar every autumn to gather over 800 participants together on its venue – Kuban representatives of small forms of business. During the event an extensive business program takes place; guests and participants visit roundtable discussions and training workshops.

Pavilions traditionally feature products of the following clusters: livestock breeding; vegetable cultivation; horticulture, gardening, vine growing and winemaking and agricultural products manufactured at agritourism facilities; fish breeding; processing and production of food products and bioproducts; arts and crafts; agricultural equipment and technologies.

It was estimated that over 530 tonnes of agricultural products and about 20,000 crafts items were realized by small businesses from all municipal entities of the Krasnodar Region at the Kuban Fair in 2018. According to information collected, the revenues of realized products amounted to approximately 67.5 mln rubles. In total, 108,000 people visited the fair in 4 days.

The place of location was not chosen by accident. Taman, a former Turkish fortress, was located on the lands Russia won from the Ottoman Empire. Later Catherine II granted those lands to Zaporozhian Cossacks (future Kuban Cossacks) who took part in Russo-Turkish Wars, The land made it into history. Two hundreds years ago the first Black Sea Cossacks landed on the coast of the Taman Bay of the Black Sea, at the bottom of the Bald Mountain. The first Orthodox cathedral was built on that land, and that’s how the story of Kuban started. Considering those facts it was decided to recreate the perfect copy of the Cossack capital there, on the Bald Mountain, in the Taman stanitsa of the Temryuksky region (Krasnodar Region). The Ataman ethnographic complex turned into a tourist gem of the Krasnodar Region. Tourists from all across Russia come to the stanitsa to immerse into the routine of Cossacks, try Cossack dishes and enjoy the atmosphere of a holiday.