Interregional cooperation in the Russian Federation in the post-COVID reality: challenges and prospects

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously distorted the public administration systems around the world. In certain countries, like the Russian Federation, the pandemic has triggered different responses by authorities on a regional level. This article argues that the lack of the interregional coordination has exacerbated the negative effects of the pandemic both on the economic development and the well-being of citizens. The goal of this research is to search for ways to improve interregional cooperation in crises of interregional scale and importance. The main hypothesis is that the lack of interregional coordination leads to ineffective crisis management and unnecessarily prolongs the recovery process. Retrospective, statistical and comparative analysis have been used to test this hypothesis. On the example of Russia, the system of crisis management coordination on the interregional level is introduced and explained. The results of this research can be used for public policy in Russia and other federal states as well as to study coordination mechanisms on a supranational level.