2018 Vol. 10 №1

The recent geopolitical shifts and Russia’s response to them have had a significant impact on the Kaliningrad region. This has created new challenges and warranted a revision of the old ones. The article investigates the reaction of the region’s economy to the challenges of its exclave position and considers possible measures to offset related problems in the current geopolitical situation. The article employs statistics, regional strategies, cross-border cooperation programmes, and expert interviews conducted by the authors in Kaliningrad in 2012—2014. The vast body of empirical data is instrumental in analysing the views of different stakeholders and estimating the problems and prospects of the region’s development as either Russia’s military outpost in Europe or as a ‘cooperation laboratory.’ The analysis takes into account collaborations with the neighbouring states. In striving to identify the preferable regional development conception, the authors reveal low susceptibility of local cross-border cooperation actors to the belligerent rhetoric of national authorities on either side of the border. The study of the state of affairs in tourism, a promising area of regional specialization, demonstrates a dual effect of the exclave position, which can be considered both as a challenge and an opportunity.

The theory of Demographic Transition stipulates that the number of countries with the replacement and sub-replacement level of the total fertility rate is growing. In these conditions, population dynamics and the sex and age composition are increasingly affected by migration. The above holds true for Eastern European countries. Population decline has haunted Latvia for two and a half decades. Since 1990, the net migration rate has been negative, which contributes to depopulation. This study aims to reveal the effect of migration on the sex and age composition across Latvia and its largest cities. The authors consider hypothetical transformations in the country’s age structure in 2000—2015 in the case of zero net migration. The study uses the cohort component methods and considers the actual agespecific mortality and birth rates. The analysis of the results obtained for the population of Latvia and its individual cities makes it possible to identify temporal and age/space features of migration. A comparison of the official data with net migration rates calculated for different age groups ensures a more accurate estimate of the actual volume and direction of migration flows for certain Latvian cities. The method for calculating net migration for the selected age groups, described in the article, may narrow the gaps in the current migration statistics and reveal the territorial inhomogeneity of demographic processes.

In 2004, the Pskov — Livonia Euroregion was established across the borders of Estonia, Latvia and Russia (the Pskov region). Tourism became a cooperation priority in the Euroregion. This necessitated research on the local tourism and recreation areas. This study aims to estimate the development prospects of transboundary microregions which have been identified by the authors within the Latvian-Estonian-Russian tourism and recreation mesoregion. The authors employ ten additional criteria proposed in the general conception of transboundary tourism and recreation regions. The article identifies five microregions: Pskov-Pechory- Tartu and Pskov-Izborsk-Cesis (first level), Pytalovo-Rezekne (second level), and Izborsk- Pechory district- Setomaa and Lake Chudskoe area (third level). The authors classify the microregions according to their level of development. The development of the Izborsk-Pechory district-Setomaa microregion is defined as ‘above average’, that of Pskov-Pechory-Tartu as ‘average’, and that of Pskov-Izborsk-Cesis as ‘below average’, and finally, the development of Pytalovo-Rezekne microregion is described as ‘poor’. The Lake Chudskoe area microregion is classified as an ‘emerging’ one. The overall level of development of transboundary tourism and recreation microregions is assessed as ‘below average’. The results of the study can be used in preparing recommendations for the development of transboundary microregions within the Latvian-Estonian-Russian tourism and recreation mesoregion.