The “Other Country” and Its Regional Policy

Over the past few years, Russia has again become different. Its confrontation with the “collective West” has reached unprecedented severity, and the sanctions imposed by it have actually stopped Western investments and export–import operations that are very significant for the country. This was partially compensated by the “turn to the East” and efforts to form a self-sufficient (“sovereign”) economy. Federal Russia has been augmented by six federal subjects, four of which have been subjected a special military operation for 2 years, and production and infrastructure facilities require reconstruction and rejuvenation mainly at the expense of federal financial and material and technical resources. The accelerated development of enterprises of the military-industrial complex and objects of Russia’s Arctic Zone is accompanied by localization of the country’s economic and infrastructural potential in several regions with ongoing depopulation and desertification of vast territories. The continuing regional policy, according to authoritative scientists, cannot become a systemic regulator of processes of change in a spatially mediated reality. Without intending to consider all aspects and negative consequences of this, the author draws the attention of readers to five issues: (1) Why should Russia of recent years be considered the “other country”? (2) What does state regional policy aspire to achieve and does it take into account the realities of the “other country?” (3) How will the policy of targeted localization of the country’s potential turn out? (4) What does the absence of territorial breakdown of the federal and regional budgets lead to? (5) How are regional policy problems discussed in the latest works by Russian scientists?