Focusing on the question of the existence of an integrated labour market in Russia, we propose to look for unequal reward structures across Russian regions : using the decomposition approach, we attempt to shed light on the metropolitan/non-metropolitan labour market division between 1994 and 2001. Wage equations corrected from selectivity bias and estimated on the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey data isolate regional fixed effects : we conclude that earnings difference are partly accounted for by different regional characteristics, but different human capital returns are predominant. Furthermore, we point out the convergence of returns to human capital during the transition process : we investigate thereby the question of discrimination on the non metropolitan labour market.