Federal Districts

Which is the more natural sentence?
1) Россия разделена на девять федеральных округов.

(Russia is divided into nine federal districts.)

2) Россия состоит из девяти федеральных округах.
(Russia is comprised of nine federal districts.)

What about these two:

1) Крым стал федеральный округ год назад.

(Crimea became a federal district a year ago.)

2) Крым стал федеральный округ в прошлом году.
(Crimea became a federal district last year.)


Would someone who is pleased with the annexation of Crimea be likely to say:
Это оказалось изменение к лучшему.
(It proved to be a change for the good.)
Or would this be an unnatural or odd way of phrasing the idea? What would be a more natural phrase for a Russian speaker to say?

Крым стал федеральный округ год назад

федеральным округом

A Russian-speaker told me that specifying that Crimea became a Federal District is not something that a Russian is likely to actually say. Rather the following are much more likely:
Крым стал частью России.(Crimea has become a part of Russia.)
Крым вернулся домой.(Crimea back home.)

Наконец-то мы вместе. (Finally we're together.)
Наконец-то мы дома. (Finally we're at home.)
Наконец-то историческая справедливость восторжествовала. (Finally historical justice triumph.)
That last one seems like a lot to say. Are these phrases highly likely to be uttered in your opinions? Thanks!

They sound equivalent to me:
1) Россия разделена на девять федеральных округов.
2) Россия состоит из девяти федеральных округах.

bobert, federal districts are just tools for Putin to facilitate government of huge country, average Russian hardly knows what they are.
If you want to say simply Russia has returned Crimea (initially Russian territory, if not to dig too far into the past), then "Крым снова стал российским", "Мы вернули Крым".

"Наконец-то..." versions are more suitable for rallies.

"Наконец-то мы дома." - can only say residents of Crimea, meaning that before they were "в гостях",
where "в гостях" is a useful expression, used for example in the famous joke:
(addressing to guest) Будьте как дома, но не забывайте, что вы в гостях!

Remember Theon Greyjoy? "He has been a hostage of House Stark" .

HTH