2022 Vol. 14 №1

Having formed at the end of the 20th century, the concept of spatial development retains its relevance today. Yet, it is associated with a range of problems with its practical implementation and theoretical vindication, especially at a regional level. Attaining sustainable regional development, understood as a steady progress balanced across the economy, social industries and environmental protection, has been deemed impossible without identifying and considering regional development factors, such as geographical and economic-geographical position, environmental conditions and their geographical diversity, natural resource and their location, spatial features of the economy and the settlement structure. Coastal regions are affected by sundry other factors, such as the presence of a seacoast, viewed as a special resource, access to maritime transport and the availability of marine resources, including renewable ones, which are essential for sustainable development. The geopolitical situation of a region and the components of this situation are considered as geopolitical factors. Other limitations include extreme natural processes and events (large waves, tsunamis, typhoons etc.) The article aims to show that an integral geographical system or a combination thereof covering a region should be considered as the most appropriate object for assessment, planning and management of sustainable development, which is based on regional nature management including water and land resources. It is proposed that sustainable development criteria include economic, social and environmental metrics of regional development. Strategic marine and spatial planning and the monitoring of regional environmental management and development are identified as principal tools for attaining and maintaining sustainable development.

Originated in the 1960s, the ‘marine branch’ of Soviet, and later Russian, economic and social geography contributed to the diversification of geographical science and expanded its scope. The new branch was a product of the rapid growth of the marine economy and the country’s military infrastructure and settlement system starting to gravitate towards the world ocean. This article uses bibliographical and scientometric materials to explore the factors, features and priorities of the development of Russian post-Soviet human geography of the world ocean. Special attention is paid to the path dependence in the evolution of this branch of geography (associated with the established professional community, the fundamental research themes and the basic concepts) and the emergence of new growth poles within the scope of marine human geography. Although this subdiscipline showed a high degree of resilience in the first years after the demise of the USSR, it became marginalised from the scientific mainstream. The interest in marine studies revived only in the early 2000s, gaining momentum after a decade of desolation. The renaissance was due to new transboundary marine research, analyses of the geopolitical and geoeconomic aspects of the marine economy and close attention given to coastal border areas (particularly the prospects and risks of their socio-economic development within the continent-ocean dichotomy). The marine focus of Russia’s geostrategy will generate steady demand for national human geography of the world ocean, including its inevitable humanities component. Another trend is the involvement of human social geography in cross-branch geographical synthesis. The study also identifies Russian research and publication centre of excellence in marine human geography.

In the radically new economic conditions of 2020, the Government of the Russian Federation selected supporting non-resource and non-energy exports as one of the four factors of sustainable economic growth. Achieving this target is a challenge, but the absence of sufficient conditions for a systemic diversification of Russian exports also poses a substantial problem. This situation lends urgency to developing a methodology for the normative institutional reflection of non-resource non-energy targets in regional legislative acts. This article aims to improve the methods for embedding non-resource non-energy export targets in regional strategies (the targets are expected to serve as an institutional factor prompting economic diversification). This research is exploratory; methodologically, it stands out for using qualitative and quantitative content analysis with elements of computer-assisted frequency analysis of legislative acts and regulations. The study classifies, for the first time, the non-resource non-energy export targets, contributing to the regional export strategy theory. Analysis of strategies for socio-economic development confirmed the hypothesis that, in some north-western Russian regions, the priorities and targets of non-resource non-energy exports are at odds with federal law. The practical implication of this study is recommendations on adapting strategies for regional socio-economic development to the updated non-resource non-energy export targets.

Balancing out uneven regional development and territorial disparities is an urgent task. Solving it requires considering the geo-economic features of various parts of Russia’s spatially structured territory. This study aims to describe trends in the economic space transformation and structural changes in the economies of the North-Western Federal District. Exploring the economic space transformation, the paper draws on economic theory and geography, the concepts of cluster and power generation cycles, regional economics and other theories. It presents the results of the institutional and economic research of income capitalization and the role of the institutional factor, along with regional gross value added (GVA) analysis by activity types. The study investigates the movement of capital (rent) in the economic space. There are several noticeable trends: the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, the Komi and Karelia Republics have diversified their economies by developing manufacturing and mining, while the Murmansk and Pskov regions did that by stimulating agriculture. Regional factors generating rent at significant transaction costs are found to be affected by institutional factors. The paper concludes that structural changes in the economy of the Russian north-west regions are wavelike in nature. The indexes of regional GVA and industrial market development point to the existence of a transition zone between the structural phases of the wave, with the transition mostly taking place in 2014. The trigger for the second phase of the wave, along with new structural changes, was international sanctions and growing confrontation reducing capital outflow and contributing to further structural changes in the regional economy.

In the wake of the Covid-10 pandemic, the Baltic region saw a dramatic reduction in tourist flows in 2000—2021; the decrease was as much as tenfold in some destinations. This study aims to classify the 16 transboundary tourist and recreational mesoregions of the Baltic region according to 2019 tourist flows. The research evaluates, for the first time, the 2020—2021 decline in tourist flows across these regions. The main outcome of this study is grouping the mesoregions into three orders according to the size of 2019 tourist flows. Four mesoregions were assigned to the first order (with over 500,000 arrivals), three of them located in the southwest Baltic region; nine, the second order (from 100,000 to 500,000 arrivals); three, the third order (from 50,000 to 100,000 arrivals). The most substantial fall in tourist flows occurred in 2020—2021 in the mesoregins including Sweden and Russia and the least marked in those involving Denmark, Germany, Finland, Estonia and Latvia. The findings may help track the future restoration of transboundary tourist flows in the countries of the Baltic region.

Border regions are significant geostrategic territories, which long-term sustainable development is one of the priorities of Russia’s national security. The specificity of their economic-geographical position necessitates the development and implementation by the authorities of special governance approaches aimed at finding a balance between the openness and barrier function of the state border. One of the most common tools for the spatial development of border areas is the sustainable cross-border cooperation with the regions of neighboring countries using various froms of cross-border cooperation, incl. focused on the generation and diffusion of innovations. The covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, having become a truly global challenge of our time, has made significant changes not only in the policies of many countries regarding the border, but also in the functioning of already established cross-border regions. The impossibility of fully implementing the previous formats of interethnic and interregional interaction has necessitated the search for new forms of cooperation, primarily based on the use of rapidly developing digital technologies. This led to the growth of academic and practical interest in substantiating the mutual effects of digitalization, innovation and internationalization for the regions. This article is devoted to assessing the potential and prospects of cross-border digitalization of the Western borderland of Russia. The objectives of the study were to identify the gap between border regions in the level of accessibility and penetration of digital technologies, as a significant condition for the formation of cross-border digital connections. The object of study is 15 subjects of the Russian Federation and 17 regions of NUTS 2 neighboring states. Using geoinformation and statistical methods of analysis, a typology of regions by the value of the digitalization index is proposed, with the allocation of leaders, moderate and lagging regions, and an assessment of their spatial location relative to the state border. Possible reasons for the current digital inequality, primarily of a socio-economic nature, are discussed. The determining role of the institutional factor in realizing the potential of cross-border digitalization has been substantiated. It is concluded that political efforts for digital convergence in the western direction are being undertaken only between Russia and Belarus, although further intensification is required.

Current geopolitical and geoeconomic changes require a reconsideration of the role of the Kaliningrad region in the Baltic region. This study aims to demonstrate the possible effect of some trends in the development of the neighbouring countries on the future of the Kaliningrad region and make recommendations on the territory’s macrospecialisation. Amid the erosion of the world order, Sergey A. Karaganov calls for moderate isolationism. The Kaliningrad region is an incredibly interesting historical experiment bound to produce unexpected results. The strengthening of Russia, which coincided with the termination of 300 years of attempts to become part of Europe in some capacity, radically affects the functions of the Kaliningrad region. Its unique geographical position and caring attitude to the historical heritage make it a likely outpost of Russia’s soft power. Developing the region as a laboratory of the future, which builds models for the domestic market and exports, will allow the country to benefit from scale, taking advantage of its larger and smaller territories. Higher education may play a leading part in the process. In particular, as conservatism revives, it is time to take another look at the ideas and approaches used when creating Akademgorodok in Novosibirsk.

The Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021—2027 was adopted during the severe crisis caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In the face of a rapidly deteriorating economic situation, EU countries took unprecedented steps radically changing the principles of resource allocation in the Union. These included the recovery plan for Europe, making the EU budget conditional on respect for the rule of law and the new EU resources system. This article seeks to identify the essential characteristics of the decisions made within the Multiannual Financial Framework and define their significance for advancing integration. The study attempts to answer two questions: do these decisions mark the transition to a new stage of integration and to what extent do they comply with the law of the Union. Several EU initiatives related to debt redistribution are analysed, along with the impact of these initiatives on Eastern European countries, particularly those of the Baltic Sea region. The research explores the decisions from the standpoint of legal and political science. In particular, it is stressed that, when reaching a compromise on making the budget conditional on respect for the rule of law, the EU and its member states had to use a mechanism for postponing the execution of an act of the Union, which contradicts the basic principles of EU law. From a political point of view, the adoption of a package of legislative acts within the Multiannual Financial Framework means growing dependence of the member states and an increase in solidarity and loyalty within the Union.

The article analyses the neighbourhood effect in the voting behaviour of the Latvians at the four recent parliamentary elections, the ethnic and national leaning of parties considered. The study expands a set of electoral geography tools by adding modern techniques of spatial analysis as well as by increasing the knowledge on the position of the Russian speakers within Latvia’s political party landscape. The research aims to evaluate the role of the neighbourhood effect at Latvian elections and identify stable spatial voting clusters. The degree of spatial autocorrelation and changes in it were analysed for each parliamentary party and the non-parliamentary but still influential Latvian Russian Union (LRU). Statistically significant spatial clusters of high and low support were identified and compared; their steadiness over the study period was examined. The structure of these clusters is generally the same for the ‘Russian’ parties (Harmony and the LRU), whilst the ‘Latvian’ parties are characterized by greater spatial diversity. The analysis shows that regions bordering on Russia have clear spatial clusters where election results correspond to the parties’ attitudes towards Russian speakers and the Russian Federation. The ‘Russian’ parties and those more or less favourably disposed to Russian speakers (For a Good Latvia, For Latvia from the Heart) have clusters of high support in the area and the ‘Latvian’ parties of low. This pattern, however, may be due to the high proportion of the non-Latvian population in Latgale (a region with strong historical connections with Russia) and the character of the development of the border area, rather than to the proximity to the Russian border.