Territorial organization of the population and economy of Russia on the brink of tectonic shifts

Abstract

According to D. Trenin, profound geopolitical changes led to the fact that instead of a Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok, the formation of Eurasia from Shanghai to St. Petersburg is seen. Under these conditions, the main defect of Russia’s geopolitical position is its extreme weakness in the Far East. It is necessary to accelerate the development of Vladivostok, so that in 15–20 years it could be Russia’s third most important city, a Pacific Petersburg. This can be achieved by forming a Greater Vladivostok, since the population of its potential metropolitan area has already reached about 600000 people, matching the population of Vladivostok itself. For Greater Vladivostok to become the regional capital of Pacific Russia, transportation problems will require innovative solutions: presumably it will be necessary to develop hovercraft transport as high-speed intrametropolitan transport. This can lead to the formation of a quite exotic system of central places with K = 2 in the Far Eastern Federal District, led by Greater Vladivostok. The city of Khabarovsk will be second in the hierarchy of such a system, Yakutsk and Blagoveshchensk, third.