Location between capitals as a challenge for Russian-Belarusian borderlands socio-economic development

Abstract

Occupying a favorable position from the point of view of spatial analysis, the regions of the Russian-Belarusian border are characterized by such qualitative epithets as depressiveness and peripherality. One of the reasons for this situation, in our opinion, is the situation in the zone of influence of several capitals at once. The article is devoted to a qualitative assessment of the impact of the intercapital location on the development of the regions of the Russian-Belarusian borderlands. The article suggests the content of the concept of «intercapital area» in relation to the object of research – the Russian-Belarusian border area. Based on the methods of statistical analysis, the author compares the indicators of economic and social development of the regions of the Russian-Belarusian border area and the metropolitan regions. There is a significant imbalance in the development of the segments of the intercapital area to the main socio-economic indicators. The ambiguity of judgments about the role of spatial elements in the depression of the border regions has set the goal of the study to further clarify the influence of various factors on the course of socio-economic processes. As a hypothesis of the study, it is suggested that one of the main reasons for the depression of the vast space on the border of Russia and Belarus, which is part of the intercapital area, is the influence of the nearby capitals of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. However, the role of the latter capital due to political and economic processes is not so obvious at the moment. The factors determining the dynamics of centrifugal processes in the intercapital area are proposed. The main ones are: the predominant function of political and administrative borders; the established system of cities, their hierarchy; gradients in the level of development between central and peripheral areas; qualitative heterogeneity of labor resources. It is concluded that the intercapital location mainly has a negative impact on the development of the Russian-Belarusian border area through depopulation processes.