“Blind Spots” of the Strategy of Spatial Development of Russia: Discussion of the Draft Strategy

Abstract

The research papers of regionalist scientists of the 1990s pointed to the need to develop a long-term model of economic and humanitarian development of the territory of Russia, taking into account the changes of its place and role in the global economy and geopolitics after the collapse of the USSR. The federal government announced such a need after the financial crisis of 2008-2009, which revealed a number of serious regional disparities. The draft strategy for the spatial development of Russia until 2025 was developed by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and was discussed throughout the second half of 2018. According to the opinion of the authors, the strategy is a doctrinal document of an extremely high level of generalization, which has a lot of “blind spots”. The following ones are the most important among them. The strategy lists problems of spatial development of the Russian Federation, but doesn’t mention the reasons for their occurrence; it gives no explanations regarding infrastructural limitations in social and economic development of the territories, doesn’t specify the criteria for identifying 14 macrozones and disregards the established principles and generally accepted scientific methods of zoning. The document doesn’t support the innovation of dividing regional specializations into efficient and inefficient ones with appropriate calculations and doesn’t show the issues of financing numerous expensive projects (sources, volumes, mechanisms). Besides, there is no objective understanding of infrastructure development projects, etc. The authors are doubtful about the method of calculating a number of indices proposed in the draft strategy, in particular, the method of calculating the urban development index designed to characterize the level of development of a large city with adjacent territories. The article presents a critical analysis of this technique. The authors have identified the regional features of the territories of the Southern Federal District which are not taken into account in the draft document. They suggest a more objective reflection of development prospects of the southern regions in the strategy as well.