The transport complex of the Russian Far East acts as the closing link in the national transport system in interactions with Asian countries. The state allocates resources for infrastructure development, and the intensity of regulation increases. This defines the aim of the study: to analyze the impact of general economic conditions, noneconomic shocks, and government regulation on the parameters of the Far East transport complex in 2000–2023. For this, the territory of the Far Eastern Federal District is divided into the southern (mainline transit of extraregional cargo in the direction of seaports) and northern (servicing mainly intraregional turnover) zones. The unevenness of the general economic dynamics is taken into account by dividing the 2000–2023 interval into six periods: three periods of conditional stability and growth (2000–2007, 2010–2013, 2016–2019) and three periods of crisis (2008–2009, 2014–2015, 2020–2023). Based on official statistical data and using the shift-share analysis, the national, regional, and industry components of the dynamics (investments, GVA, number of employees) were calculated for two transport zones of the Far East in each time period. It is shown that the state’s focus on developing a latitudinal transit corridor resulted in higher performance in the southern transport zone of the Far Eastern Federal District and the predominance of the regional component in the structure of investment dynamics, beginning in 2008–2009. The dynamics of transport GVA during 2000–2023 were determined by the national component for both the southern and northern transport zones; its change was not symmetrical to investment growth. Employment in the transport sector in individual periods prior to 2016 was more closely linked to economic dynamics. Furthermore, its change, in addition to the general trends of the national labor market, is also explained by the specifics of the human resource policy of individual types of transport.
Based on 29 master plans for cities and urban agglomerations in Russia, developed between 2010 and 2025, the relationship between five thematic blocks was studied: (1) communication with beneficiaries; (2) socioeconomic development strategy; (3) territorial planning; (4) urbanism (urban environment); (5) implementation and resource provision. Using expert analysis, the share of attention and degree of elaboration of each block were identified. It has been established that master plans devote significant attention to both topics of socioeconomic development strategies (20
This paper studies the evolution of the spatial distribution of economic activity in Russia from 1995 to 2022, identifies the key factors and mechanisms that governed these changes, and explains the role of macroeconomic and global shocks of this period in the identified structural shifts. Descriptive statistics, Theil indices, and econometric estimates are used for the analysis. The study revealed the presence of stable trends: economic activity in Russia is gradually migrating from East to West, from peripheral regions to the European centers, and from regions with resource specialization to regions with predominantly manufacturing sectors. The mechanisms and factors of these spatial changes are primarily market-related and include accumulated fixed and human capital, the size and accessibility of external markets, and an agglomeration economy. The econometric analysis revealed no structural shifts in the contribution of significant factors that could have been caused by the transformation of the external environment in recent years. Regression estimates showed that government participation has a significant impact on regional business activity, but its effect is insufficient to reverse established trends in spatial evolution and initiate an eastern development vector. To address the challenge of spatial maneuvering eastward, government initiatives should include large-scale financial and organizational support for a series of large-scale, impactful projects with economic growth multipliers localized primarily in the country’s East.
The rapid increase in the number of migrants during the post-Soviet period has led to the emergence of phenomena not typical of Soviet times in Russian cities, such as irregular migration, ethnic entrepreneurship, and interethnic conflicts. This has led to a significant increase in the interest of scientists from various fields in the study of migrants. Over the past few decades, migrants and their communities have gone from being a secondary topic of research to one of the most popular subjects in the social sciences. At the same time, due to resource and methodological limitations, as well as a selective approach to consideration, no science has achieved sufficient research complexity, and many gaps remain hidden behind the interdisciplinary research. The article argues that methodological diversity and the vast potential of new data sources make geography a prime candidate for the role of a fundamental scientific discipline in the study of migrant communities. The dynamic nature of the object of study, associated with both the transformation of communities themselves and changing perceptions of ethnicity, is ideally suited to the approach of geography. With regard to the information base, the article describes and systematizes the main information sources used to investigate migrant communities. It also demonstrates the potential of geoinformation technologies in identifying these communities in social and geographic space. It is noted that the current dominant constructivist paradigm shifts the focus of geographers’ attention from the issues of migrants’ settlement pattern and concentration in cities to the study of migrant networks’ formation and functioning. This shift increases the relevance of utilizing new sources of big data, such as information from mobile network operators and social networks. In general, this trend in migration research in social geography is outlined, along with the opportunities presented by the digitalization of society and the emergence of new statistical resources. Sociocultural transformations in modern Russian cities also play a significant role in this process.
The article presents the results of a study on the connectivity of regions of Asian Russia based on indicators of permanent population migration as a variety of interregional interactions. It is assumed that the presence of intensive migration exchanges between regions indicates the connectivity, as do their sustainability and stability over time. The study use statistical data on interregional population migration of the Siberian Federal District, the Far Eastern Federal District, and Tyumen Oblast for 2015, 2019, and 2023. The study calculates the intensity (rate) coefficient of interregional migration flows between all pairs of regions of Asian Russia. Then, pairs of regions with the most pronounced values of migration exchange indicators were selected, followed by identification of groups of connected regions classified by geography (geographical proximity, common borders). The intensity of migration exchanges within those groups is higher than with territories outside. These groups are the Western and Southern groups in Western Siberia, the Yenisei and Baikal groups in Eastern Siberia, and a group of regions of the Far East. The study shows general trends in the migration processes: a decrease in migration exchanges and “Western drift,” which means that the intensity of the westward migration flow is higher than the intensity of the eastward migration flow. It describes the interregional migration connectivity according to the following parameters: the intensity of migration exchanges, natural or institutional genesis of connectivity, symmetry or asymmetry of migration flows, forms of connectivity, and sustainability of migration connections. To assess the sustainability of interregional migration connections, first, the study compares the values of migration intensity (rate) coefficients over several years, and second, it uses data from the 2020–2021 All-Russian Population Census regarding in which regions the natives of certain territories of Asian Russia live.
