Development of municipal issues in the state spatial policy of Russia

In the coming years, it is necessary to develop a new strategy for the spatial development of Russia and continue to elaborate the state spatial policy, within the framework of which there should be an increase in the importance of municipal issues. From the author’s point of view, this will be possible when solving a number of conceptual and applied problems. This is a clear articulation of a multi–scale approach in state spatial policy in general and in relation to the formation of the settlement system in particular - a clear statement of goals and objectives at the level of macro-regions, regions (subjects of the Russian Federation), municipalities, determining the balance of these partly inevitably contradictory goals. In order to justify the decisions taken, it is important to radically advance the quality of municipal statistics: the approval of the official methodology for calculating the gross municipal product, the active use of the resources of the Federal Tax Service, ensuring comparability of data on municipalities and subjects of the Russian Federation. In order to transform municipalities into real subjects of spatial development, it is necessary to study, within the framework of the upcoming reform of local self- government, the issues of differentiation of the powers of local self-government bodies of municipalities of different population and type, the expansion of the powers of local authorities, especially large and largest cities, as well as issues of management and strategic planning in urban agglomerations. As part of the development of measures of state support for the development of rural areas and small towns, the author suggests paying special attention to the issues of motorization of the population.