Across the Bering Strait from Nome and Kotzebue lies the Russian province closest to Alaska. The Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is made up of 8 counties, called Raions. 4,000 miles and nine time zones away from Moscow, it is probably, next to Chechnya, the most distressed part of the Russian Federation. Occupying about 284,000 square miles, Chukotka is comparable in size to the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho combined. The capital and largest city is Anadyr, with a population of 13,200. There are three other cities, 15 towns, and 45 villages. About twenty-five percent of the population is Native (indigenous); largely Chukchi, Even, and Eskimo, a percentage that has increased as non-Native people moved out of Chukotka in response to depressed economic and living conditions.

Alaska and Chukotka are neighbors in more than just physical proximity. The ties between peoples and families go back thousands of years. Economic and social interaction persisted into the Soviet era. The final vestiges of these relationships were abrogated only with the coming of the Cold War in the latter 1940s. Melting of the "ice curtain" between the neighbor regions came with Gorbachev's Perestroika. Formal and informal visits began in 1988. Long-separated Native families could meet again. As tourism and trade expanded, direct charter flights were initiated between Nome and Provideniya or Anadyr. Bilateral presidential negotiations created a new, special treatment of the zone called "Beringia" and a new US-Soviet treaty authorized visa-free travel by Natives across the Bering Strait.

The Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is home to some 70,000 people, of whom about 17,000 are Native. It has a very poorly developed road system, and like Alaska, many cities and villages can be reached only via air or water transportation. The Okrug is one of the poorest regions of Russia. Its economy depends primarily on mining and fishing. For most of the 1990s it was isolated from the West and from the other regions of Russia.

Until 2001, Chukotka suffered from a dysfunctional economy and the collapse of most civil institutions. For eight years, its government was a virtual dictatorship that curtailed market and democratic reforms and severely limited contacts with Alaska, the rest of the world, and even other parts of Russia. The then governor's active opposition to the growing independence of non-governmental and particularly Native organizations strained remnants of the economy and civil society.

Chukotkans elected a new governor in 2001. Roman Abramovich, a businessman of national prominence, is committed to strengthening the region's economy, infrastructure, and delivery of education, health, and other services. The new Chukotka administration is seeking Alaska's collaboration in effecting change in the region. The governor is pursuing a total policy reorientation featuring openness, transparency, and the rule of law, in which economic and cultural relations with Alaska and Alaska's economic and business models would play a major role in Chukotka's future.

The Alaska Chukotka Development Program (ACDP) is helping to initiate and support change in Chukotka and to create programs and organizational forms that will be continued by the Russian side. During its first year, the program has facilitated a real partnership between the two regions. General directions and project implementation are regularly reviewed with the governor, the Okrug administration, NGOs, and Native and other leaders. Individual projects are carried out on a fully collaborative basis.