Pskov Region

Geographical location. Pskov Region lies in the North-West of the European part of Russia, it borders on Estonia, Latvia and Belorussia. Area – 55,300 sq km

Federal district. Northwestern

Administrative centre. Pskov, distance to Moscow – 732 km

Major cities. Velikiye Luki, Ostrov, Nevel, Opochka

Population: 688,649 people

Population density: 12.5 people per sq km

Gross regional product (2008 estimate): RUR 73.4 bln (USD 2.4 bln)

Per capita gross regional product (2008 estimate): RUR 104,800 (USD 3,500)

Major economic activities: Industry is mainly concentrated in Pskov and Velikiye Luki. The leading industries are machine building (including electro-technical industry), chemical and textile equipment manufacturing, peat machines production, radio electronics. Pskov Region is the leading Russian manufacturer of small-power electric motors for household appliances, mechanical means and automation equipment. Light, food and wood-using industries, production of construction materials are represented as well.

Agriculture is the region’s key economic sector. Predominant agricultural branches are poultry farming, potato and vegetable growing, dairy farming and beef stock farming.

Natural and mineral resources. Forests are a true treasure of the region, occupying over one third of the region’s territory. 45% of the forest reserves are occupied with softwood, 34.5% - with birch wood.

Vast water resources comprise over 3,700 lakes (the largest of them being Pskov-Chud lake, the 3rd largest in Europe) and more than 30 rivers of various sizes flowing into the lake, with Narva river flowing out of it. The major rivers are Velikaya, Lovat, Shelon and Plussa.

Pskov Region possesses significant peat resources. 329 peat deposits have been discovered in the region. The extracted resources of peat amount to 563.5 mln tons.

Natural resources of the region include: limestones, sand-and-gravel materials, dolomites, malm, gypsum, high-melting and fusible clay, molding sands, raw materials for mineral color production, sapropel and therapeutic muds, undersurface mineral waters.

Moreover, the region has vast reserves of exported non-wood forest products: mushrooms, berries (blackberry, red bilberry, cranberry), drug raw materials.

Fuel and energy complex. 17 enterprises are engaged in the fuel and energy complex of Pskov Region, with Pskovenergo – the affiliate of IDGC of the North-West JSC – being the largest one. The prime activity of Pskovenergo is rendering electric power transmission services and technological connection to power network on the territory of Pskov Region.

Foreign trade turnover. In the first half of 2009, the regional foreign trade turnover made USD 255.2 mln: export – USD 29.2 mln, import – USD 226 mln.

The key trade partners of the region are Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Estonia, China, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Transport system. The region possesses a well developed transport infrastructure:

• Public railway mileage – 1,100 km
• Total mileage of motor roads with hard coating – 10,500 km
• Inland navigable waterways – 503 km
• Pskov international airport carries out air transportation and provides its services to passenger and cargo aircrafts up to 250 tons of take-off mass

Tourism. Due to its advantageous geopolitical position, favorable climatic and ecological conditions, numerous historical, cultural and natural sights, Pskov Region offers excellent opportunities for educational tourism (57% of tourists coming in the region), entertainment and recreation (18%) and health tourism (9%).

There are 3 state museums and 8 affiliates, 16 municipal museums, 372 federal (nation-wide) monuments and 3,570 local monuments in the region.

Many tourist destinations in Pskov Region have high historic value as well as natural beauty – Pskov, Pechory, Pushkin Mountains, Izborsk, Velikiye Luki, Gdov, Sebezh, Porkhov.

Recently, pilgrim tourism has been actively revived in Pskov Region.

Ethnic tourism lovers can visit Izborsk surroundings, the native land of the Seto, a tiny ethnic group of Finno-Ugric origin living nowadays in Southern Estonia and in Pechora district of Pskov Region.