Problems and prospects of Siberian inland territories’ development in the context of Russian marine economic activity

• Published in: Czasopismo Geograficzne
• Main Authors: Druzhinin, Alexander Georgievich, Dets, Igor Andreevich
• Other Authors: North Caucasus Research Institute of Economic and Social Problems of the Southern Federal University, V. B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Polskie Towarzystwo Geograficzne 2021
• Subjects: marine economic activity; inland territories; socio-economic development; geopolitics; Siberia; Arctic; Russia
• Online Access: https://depot.ceon.pl/handle/123456789/20708

In the 21st century, not only is Siberia the most important macroregion of Russia, the most extensive in its territory and significant in terms of natural resource potential, it is also one of the key objects of Eurasian geopolitics. The article shows the “sea factor’s” significance in its influence on the formation of ideas about the external borders of Siberia, as well as substantiates the conjugation of the socio-economic development of Siberian regions with the markedly increased maritime activity in the Russian Federation since the beginning of the 2000s (first of all, with the port economy and extraction of hydrocarbons on the sea shelf). Based on the application of statistical, comparative-geographical and cartographic research methods, it is shown that it is precisely due to the post-Soviet geo-economic and geopolitical processes (including Russia’s accelerated entry into the global “oceanic” economy) that the duality of Siberia’s position in the “continental-oceanic dichotomy” is more clearly manifested. This is characterized by the continuing “stratification” of Siberian territories into the “continental” ones (including those that were in the sphere of influence of the hinterlands of the largest seaports) and the coastal ones (both with historically established and newly formed centers of marine economic activity). Particular attention is paid to the possibilities and priorities of the conjugation of Russia’s “maritime” strategies (primarily in the Arctic) and efforts to mitigate the negative economic effects of the “continentality” of Siberian territories. Russian Scientific Foundation (Project No. 19-18-00005, “Eurasian Vectors of marine economic activity in Russia: regional economic projections”); Russian Academy of Sciences (Project No. IG RAS 0148-2019-0008, “Problems and prospects of territorial development of Russia in the conditions of its unevenness and global instability”).