hardly feasible without government support (e.g. provided by implementing the
Conversion federal program, etc.).
Backward and depressed problem regions are of particular importance in
regional pursued in Russia.
The subjects of RF are considered backward, or traditionally backward, which have
not become adequately developed throughout the Soviet era for a number of
reasons. As a result, all their socio-economic indicators proved inferior to those
typical for the country as a whole. The new reforms had added to their aggravated
situation and today thase subjects have no established potential to promote their
development. The regions of this type could be categorized into three groups of RF
subjects, including: 1)those located in the North of Russia with its unfavorable
climatic conditions; 2)those located in favorable climatic conditions and 3)a group
of Northern Caucasus republic offering most favorable living conditions for the
population and factors conducive to production development.
The fundamental difference between the depressed and backward regions lies in
the fact that, despite lower-than-average-economic indicatorsof depressed
regions, previously they were rather economically developed demonstratong
prominent performance in some aspects. However, these regions lost their stand
due to several reasons, such as depletion of natural resources because of
aggravated geological conditions, drop in demandfor the production output of a
region, or because of lowering of product competitiveness.
After analyzing the typologies behavior of the RF subjects it became possible to
identify a group of regions likely to be called flatly unsuccessful or crisis-laden,
even when viewed against the background of overall decline in the volume of
production. Some authors, e.g. A.Treivish and T.Nefyodova identify three types of
crisis districts:
- zone of armed spatial conflicts in the Northern Caucasus, primarily in Chechnya;
- borderlands being reduced to poverty, among them ethnic, northern, caucasian
and just peripheral regions;
- districts in depression of classical style, characterized by severe setback in
production and unemployment.
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