Vol 6, No 2 (2016)

The paper analyzes the factors and trends of the Russian crises of 1990–2010 and their impact on the economic development of regions, the labor market and personal income, and the state of regional budgets. It considers the factors and dynamics of the crisis of 2014–2015 and its difference from previous ones: the conditionality by internal barriers of development with the subsequent influence of external factors, the slower downturn in industry, and the retention of relative stability on the labor market. The main crisis-related problems for regions are revealed: destabilization of their budgets since 2013, the drop in personal income and the advance drop in consumption, and the extended reduction in investments. Differences in crisis-related trends are shown for regions with different economies and geographical positions. The study analyzes the risks and forms of crisis adaptation of the populations of the largest cities with predominance of the service sector in the employment structure, the smaller industrial cities, and the rural periphery. State policy measures to stabilize regional budgets, support industry and regional labor markets in crisis periods are considered.

Innovation activity of Russian regions is considered in two aspects, i.e., creation of innovations and use of innovations. A methodology for assessing the regional level of innovative development is presented. In order to identify the regions’ specialization in different aspects of innovation activity, we constructed two indices of innovative development, i.e., the index of innovation creation and the index of innovation use. Each region receives a numerical estimate for its level of innovative development. Regions are ranked based on these values and assessed as developed or backward. We analyze regions appearing to be leaders in innovative development and assess the stability of their group and leadership position. It is shown that innovations are created in the same leading regions, the number of which (19 regions) remains almost the same over the entire considered period, but they are used in 41 regions, the set of which changes from year to year. Ranking of regions makes it possible to compare innovation levels and to determine strengths and weaknesses of particular innovation systems, which can be taken into account in designing state innovation policy.

According to D. Trenin, profound geopolitical changes led to the fact that instead of a Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok, the formation of Eurasia from Shanghai to St. Petersburg is seen. Under these conditions, the main defect of Russia’s geopolitical position is its extreme weakness in the Far East. It is necessary to accelerate the development of Vladivostok, so that in 15–20 years it could be Russia’s third most important city, a Pacific Petersburg. This can be achieved by forming a Greater Vladivostok, since the population of its potential metropolitan area has already reached about 600000 people, matching the population of Vladivostok itself. For Greater Vladivostok to become the regional capital of Pacific Russia, transportation problems will require innovative solutions: presumably it will be necessary to develop hovercraft transport as high-speed intrametropolitan transport. This can lead to the formation of a quite exotic system of central places with K = 2 in the Far Eastern Federal District, led by Greater Vladivostok. The city of Khabarovsk will be second in the hierarchy of such a system, Yakutsk and Blagoveshchensk, third.

The evolution of an urban settlement system in the post-Soviet space is analyzed by the comparison of the progress of urbanization and changes in migration balances of cities of different size, status, and location in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Despite the differences in size and density of cities, their hierarchical and spatial structure, and management decisions, many trends in the development of city systems were similar in these countries. The reasons for different migration attractiveness of cities of different sizes are discussed including their socioeconomic statuses and infrastructural arrangement. These countries are characterized by strong contrasts in urban settlement patterns where large and very large centers play a major role and there is a significant proportion of small towns. In all three countries, there are significant differences between the quality of life in large urban centers and small towns. The situation before the military events in Ukraine in 2014 is analyzed. Migration in the period of 1990–2013 mostly from rural areas and from small and medium-sized cities to major centers supports the hypothesis of renewed urbanization that had gone uncompleted in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus in the Soviet era. Two main migration directions can be noted in the post-Soviet period: from rural areas to capitals, their suburbs, and other large cities, and for Russia and Ukraine (until 2014), from the east to the central and southern regions.

A comparative analysis of the views of 20-year-olds (first generation, born and raised in post-Soviet years) about the cities where they live was conducted based on surveys of students in three neighboring largest cities on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea: Kaliningrad, Klaipėda, and Gdańsk. The most important aspects of urban life for young people were identified. The needs of Kaliningrad students were compared with the forecast scenarios of city development. It was shown that young people request improvement of public spaces and development of historical memory policy, while the city administration is more concerned with solving quotidian tangible problems and searching for large investments. It is concluded that the lack of consideration for young people’s interests in the project for development of Kaliningrad hampers improvement in living standards in the city in general and human capital accumulation.

In recent years, many studies on the foreign electricity trade in the post-Soviet space have been published, but they have not considered the regional specific nature of this phenomenon. The aim of this work is to identify the regional features of development and degradation of foreign trade in the post-Soviet space over the period 1990–2015. The work is carried out using comparative-geographical, historical and evolutionary, and cartographic methods. The directions of construction and dismantling of the cross-border PTLs, cross-border power transmission, and the loading level of cross-border PTLs are determined. Analysis of these parameters has shown that the general trend for the post-Soviet space has become degradation of the foreign electricity trade and the service infrastructure despite the high potential for international cooperation in this industry. The exceptions are the Baltic states, which have established integral power systems due to unification of the electricity market parameters. The imbalances associated with the closure of the Ignalina nuclear power plant and active development of wind power plants, as well as the requirements of all-European policy, have facilitated construction of cross-border PTLs in the Baltic states. Assessment of prospects has shown that, provided the solution of some foreign policy issues, it is possible to create power pool systems based on the use of electricity produced by hydroelectric power plants in eastern Central Asia and western Transcaucasia. Intensification of electricity exports to Asian countries (China, Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey) is typical of many countries. The main precondition for the development of foreign trade is an imbalance between growing power consumption in some regions and the availability of cheap energy in others. Less important are fluctuations in the currency rate, foreign policy phenomena, and the policy for developing national power systems.

Despite the active development of tools and methods for strategic planning, Russian federal, regional, and municipal authorities still have no clear understanding of the role, limits of application, and content value of strategic documents. Also, there are virtually no efficient management systems for the formation, adoption, and implementation of strategies at the regional level, which explains the relevance of this study. The aim of this paper is to analyze the experience of development, adoption, and implementation of strategies for socioeconomic development of federal subjects, estimate their effectiveness, and on this basis develop proposals to improve the acceptance and evaluation processes of strategies in the future. The study presents examples of conformity of already approved strategies for socioeconomic development of the Russian Federation to existing state standards, as well as examples of the completeness of content and presence of mandatory basic elements of strategies. The authors identify the main trends in the evolution of the system for designing and adopting such strategies. We conclude it necessary to develop a uniform conceptual methodology for assessing the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of socioeconomic development strategies for Russian regions. Recommendations are given for improving the system of development and evaluation of documents for strategic planning at the regional level.

The paper considers the effects of changes in legislation regulating the nature protection activities of enterprises based on best available technologies (BATs). A hierarchical classification of the most important factors that determine the level of eco-economic effectiveness of BATs is proposed. The interaction of these factors is shown, and the type of metrics used at this level is presented. The effectiveness of BATs is analyzed from the standpoint of how regional natural factors impact the technology, with case studies from the coal, oil, and gas industries as vital areas of nature protection activity. Studies on the replacement of existing technologies with BATs are summarized in order to reduce damage to natural complexes of Siberian coal-mining regions using preventive damage assessment methodologies. It is concluded that the specifics of the regional natural background indisputably affect the amount of this reduction and BAT effectiveness. It is found that the greatest environmental effect is possible for the coal mines of southern Yakutia, the Far East, and the Kuznetsk Basin. It is shown that achievement of design BAT effectiveness in the coal, oil, and gas industries largely depends on the availability and proper use of basic elements of the eco-economic management system, especially environmental impact assessment and monitoring. Recommendations on the use of sustainable development indicators to measure the impact of natural factors on the BAT effectiveness are given.