Trends in the Territorial Organization of Industry in Post-Soviet Russia and Their Potential Environmental Consequences

Abstract

The trends of the territorial organization of industry associated with new industrial construction in post-Soviet Russia are determined. An exceptionally high territorial differentiation of industrial construction was revealed. This is manifested in its concentration in a small number of areas and in its superconcentration in the metropolitan regions. The northern and eastern regions of the country are distinguished by focal industrial development and the dominance of mining enterprises. In Asian Russia, the Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi autonomous okrugs are distinguished by large-scale industrial construction, but the density of development is low. Against the total fragmentation of the single national economic complex in the course of market reforms, certain signs of spontaneous complexation appeared. In the new economic conditions, new industries have arisen: the extraction of oil and natural gas resources on the shelf of the Okhotsk, Caspian, Baltic, Pechora and Black seas; liquefied natural gas plants; and car assembly enterprises. Analysis of the structure of the new industrial construction revealed no signs of its greening. Two-thirds of the new facilities are related to basic, environmentally aggressive industries. The increasing concentration of industry in a few areas of economic activity, oriented mainly outward, is the main vector of Russia’s territorial development. A similar vector prevailing in the conditions of the market element is poor in quality from both environmental and geopolitical aspects.