Geopolitical Priorities in Russia's Regional Policies

Abstract

State regional policies are generally based either on the goal of stimulating the development of specific regions or of equalizing the level of development among the regions. The first path is generally pursued by developing states while rich states favor the second path. Russia has in the past experimented with both vectors of regional policy. Since the annexation of Crimea, a third factor has come to dominate: geopolitics. The main goal of Russia's regional policy is securing control of geopolitically significant territories. The high expense of such a policy makes it unsustainable during a period of economic retrenchment.

Keywords::

• Regional policy
• Crimea
• geopolitics
• Northern Caucasus

Notes

English translation © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2015 “Kontrapunkt.” “Geopoliticheskie prioritety v regional'noi politike Rossii: vozmozhnosti i riski,” Kontrapunkt, 2015, no. 1, pp. 1–11. Translated by Brad Damaré.

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^6. Here I am citing unpublished data (requiring additional verification), since Russia's Pension Fund does not publish data by region.