EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF THE FEDERAL LEVEL REGIONAL POLICY ON INTERREGIONAL COOPERATION IN RUSSIA

This paper is devoted to the issue of evaluating the regional policy adopted at the federal level with respect to interregional cooperation development in the Russian Federation. One of the aims of the Strategy for spatial development of the Russian Federation adopted in 2019 is to reduce the level of social and economic interregional differentiation of Russian regions, as well as to lower interregional disparities. This aim ought to be reached through strengthening of the interregional cooperation and coordination of the social and economic development of regions within the macro-regions of the Russian Federation. The goal of this research is to analyze in dynamics current contours of the regional policy with respect to its concordance with the aim of interregional cooperation strengthening. The hypothesis of this research is that the contemporary state regional policy did not contribute to strengthening of the interregional cooperation of Russian regions and the aforementioned aim of the Strategy will not be reached if current trends of the regional policy continue. To test the hypothesis methods of system and institutional analysis, retrospective analysis, and the method of comparison were adopted. The following measures of the regional policy are analyzed: the centralization of the state power, enhancement of the system of inter-budgetary relations, programming method of management, mega-projects implementation, and development of instruments of polarized development. The main conclusion of the research is that the adopted regional policy to a greater degree stimulates competition among regions for the federal financing rather than interregional cooperation and coordination. This conclusion can be used for correcting the present regional policy of the Russian Federation with respect to the relations between the regional and the federal level and between regions themselves. Further research is needed concerning development of specific measures aimed at promoting interregional cooperation.

horizontal relations, state programs, mega-projects, inter-budgetary relations, interregional cooperation, interregional competition, polarized development, regional policy, strategy for spatial development, power centralization

Violin S. I. Evaluation of the effects of the federal level regional policy on interregional cooperation in Russia. Business. Education. Law, 2022, no. 3, pp. 48—53. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2022.60.323.