Russia's Arctic Facade: current state, challenges of uneven development and priority public policy measures

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the special geostrategic significance for Russia of its Arctic facade - the coastal Arctic. The aim of the study is to strengthen Russia's sovereignty over its Arctic spaces through neutralizing the challenges of the over-uneven development of the municipalities included in the Arctic facade. The information base of the research was the data of municipal statistics, and the main methods were the systemic and structural approach, comparative, cartographic analysis, analysis of extreme cases and economic intermunicipal gaps. The results of the research: we determined the composition of the Russian Arctic facade; we made assessment of the location of the Arctic façade in the Russian Federation; we determined the degree of specialization of each of the eight regions in the provision of "services" of façade; we revealed major paradoxes of the internal development of the Arctic facade - between its gigantic size and the concentration of the main industrial and agricultural activity in the Arctic of one or two regions, the dichotomy of rotational areas - the poles of resource growth and areas of traditional activity of old-timers and indigenous minorities; thousandfold contrasts in the level of economic and investment development between leaders (Norilsk industrial area, Purovsky, Tazovsky, Nadym districts) and outsiders (Chukotka, Allaikhovsky, Mezensky districts); within the city districts, two extreme cases were revealed according to the key indicators of municipal statistics - the "corporate city" of Norilsk and the territory of defense significance - Novaya Zemlya; organizational, financial, institutional and informational measures were proposed to smooth out internal differences in the development of the territories of the Arctic façade: cross-subsidization from leading territories to outsider territories, improving the administrative-territorial division, turning Norilsk into a base for the development of the Russian eastern Arctic, creating a trans-Arctic charter flight Murmansk -Anadyr and sites for the exchange of best practices and practices between the municipalities of the Arctic facade.