Russia of the Regions

Abstract

Russia inherited from the Soviet Union an economic structure that was geographically highly unbalanced. Capital accumulation and industrial location were a result of a concerned government policy to locate key industry in a small number of regions. But even after the collapse of the Empire, the gap between more prosperous regions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, and less developed ones, has not been reduced. Actually, the gap has widened during the Tast decade of transition. The paper describes regional disparities and their influencing factors, analyses regional socio-economic imbalances, losers and winners of the transition. Finally, it gives a summary of regional development policy documents and main targets of the regional policy.