Head of administration Lev Korshunov, a member of Our Home Is Russia, was appointed to this post in January 1994. From 1991 to 1994, he was the first deputy head of administration.
Korshunov's strongest rival is Aleksandr Surikov, chairman of the Legislative Assembly. Surikov, who chaired the Krai Soviet since August 1991 and became chairman of the Legislative Assembly in March 1994, was nominated by the movement For True Popular Power, Civil Peace and Working People's Interests and is supported by Gennadii Zyuganov's Popular-Patriotic Union of Russia. In 1993, he was elected to the Federation Council with 49.59% of the vote. In the current upper house of parliament, he is deputy chairman of the Committee on Budget, Financial, Currency and Credit Regulation, Monetary Emission, Tax Policy, and Customs Regulation.
Another would-be opposition candidate, former Agriculture Minister Aleksandr Nazarchuk, now chairman of the Altai Agricultural Union, withdrew from the race after he could not meet a residency requirement, and the Legislative Assembly decided not to change the krai electoral law. The chances of the other candidates are considered negligible.
Altai Krai is located in the south of West Siberia in the basin of the upper Ob River, an area colonized by the Russians in the 18th century. Rolling plains and the foothills of the Altai Mountains, once covered by steppe, are almost entirely under cultivation--wheat, corn, and oats being the chief crops. Mining plays an important role, mainly of nonferrous ores around Zmeinogorsk in the hilly south, whereas light industry, a chemical industry, and wood-processing are developed in bigger cities, notably in the capital Barnaul on the Ob River. Soils in Altai Krai have suffered from nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk in adjacent Kazakstan, the main nuclear test site in the former Soviet Union.
After Russians, Germans are the second largest ethnic group of the krai's population (1989 census), partly living in the national raion, situated in the northwestern region of the krai (around the center Nekrasovo/Halbstadt).
1995 Population: 2,697,200 (1.82% of Russian total)
Industrial production as percentage of all Russian production (Jan.-Aug. 1995): 0.93%
Agricultural production as percentage of all Russian production (1994): 2.11%
Average personal income index in July 1995: 58 (Russia as a whole = 100)
Price basket index in July 1995: 83 (Russia = 100)
Average back wages owed per person (September 1995): 48,600 rubles (Russian average = 37,100)
Urban population: 52.1% (Russia overall: 73.0%)
Student population (1993): 139 per 10,000 (Russia overall: 171/10,000)
Pensioner population (1994): 24.26%
Percent of population with higher education (1989 census): 8.2% (Russia overall: 11.3%)
Percent of population working in (1993):
Number of telephones per 100 families (1993):
According to a survey by Bank Austria, the krai was ranked 55th among Russia's 89 regions on investment climate.
1996 Presidential Election
| Candidate | Turnout in First Round | Turnout in Second Round |
| Yeltsin | 21.80% | 38.56% |
| Zyuganov | 41.97% | 55.52% |
| Lebed | 19.39% | |
| Zhirinovsky | 7.38% | NA |
| Yavlinskii | 5.05% | |
| Overall Turnout (Altai Krai) | 70.67% | 67.08.% |
| Overall Turnout (Russia) | 69.67% | 68.79% |
1995 Parliamentary Election
| Party | Result |
| Communist Party of the Russian Federation | 25.98% |
| Liberal Democratic Party of Russia | 15.59% |
| Our Home Is Russia | 4.96% |
| Yabloko | 3.58% |
| Agrarian Party of Russia | 12.38% |
| Women of Russia | 4.48% |
| Communists -- Workers' Russia | 4.70% |
| Party of Worker's Self-Government | 3.55% |
| Derzhava | 3.08% |
| In single-member districts | |
| Party | Seats |
| Communist Party of the Russian Federation | 2 |
| Agrarian Party | 1 |
| Independent | 1 |
| Turnout in Altai Krai | 66.95% |
| Turnout in Russia | 64.37% |
1993 Constitutional Referendum
| Yes | 49.68% |
| No | 47.40% |
1993 Parliamentary Election
| Party | Result |
| Liberal Democratic Party of Russia | 27.75% |
| Agrarian Party of Russia | 23.40% |
| Russia's Choice | 10.81% |
| Communist Party of the Russian Federation | 9.86% |
| Women of Russia | 8.58% |
| Party of Russian Unity and Concord | 5.47% |
| Democratic Party of Russia | 4.71% |
| Yabloko | 3.19% |
| In single-member districts | |
| Party | Seats |
| Russia's Choice | 1 |
| Agrarian Party of Russia | 2 |
| New Regional Policy | 1 |
| From electoral associations | |
| Party | Seats |
| Agrarian Party of Russia | 1 |
| Women of Russia | 1 |
| Russia's Choice | 1 |
| Turnout in Altai Krai | 54.25% |
| Turnout in Russia overall | 54.34% |
1991 Presidential Election
| Candidate | Result |
| Yeltsin | 46.38% |
| Ryzhkov | 23.59% |
| Zhirinovsky | 11.59% |
| Tuleev | 9.11% |
| Bakatin | 2.73% |
| Makashov | 2.45% |
| Turnout in Altai Krai | 77.21% |
| Turnout in Russia | 76.66% |
Data compiled by Silja Haas and Anna Paretskaya.
Sources
Goroda Rossii [Cities of Russia], Moscow: Bolshaya Rossiiskaya Entsiklopediya, 1994
Rossiiskie regiony nakanune vyborov-95 [Russian regions on the eve of 1995 elections], Moscow: Yuridicheskaya Literatura, 1995.
Itogi vyborov 17 dekabrya 1995 goda po regionam [Results of the 17 December 1995 elections, regional breakdown], Moscow: Panorama, 1996.
Vybory deputatov Gosudarstvennoi Dumy 1995 [State Duma elections 1995], Moscow: Central Electoral Commission, 1996.
S.A. Nagaev and A.Woergoetter: Regional Risk Rating in Russia, Vienna: Bank Austria, 1995.