Content №1 от 2024
“A Different Country” and Its Regional Policy
In recent years, Russia has undergone a new set of significant transformations, marked by heightened tensions in its relations with the “collective West” and the consequential imposition of sanctions, disrupting vital Western investments and export-import operations. To partially counterbalance this, the nation pivoted towards the East and endeavored to establish a self-sufficient (“sovereign”) economy. The addition of six new constituent entities to Federative Russia, four of which have been subject to the special military operation for two years, has created a scenario where the restoration and renewal of production and infrastructure facilities heavily rely on federal financial material resources. Simultaneously, the accelerated development of defense industry enterprises and facilities in the Arctic zone has led to the concentration of economic and infrastructural potential in select regions, exacerbating depopulation and “desertification" in vast territories. Despite efforts, regional policy, as noted by authoritative scientists, struggles to act as a systemic regulator for spatially mediated reality changes. We, without aiming to cover all aspects and negative consequences comprehensively, pose five key questions for consideration: (1) why recent Russia should be perceived as “‘a different country," (2) the aspirations and adaptability of state regional policy to these altered realities, (3) the implications of the policy of point localization of the country’s potential, (4) the repercussions of the lack of territorialization in federal and regional budgets, and (5) an examination of how scholars address regional policy issues in their latest works.
