Russian Regions and Regionalism: Strength Through Weakness

321 Pages·2002·1.617 MB·English

by  Graeme P. Herd

Russian Regions and Regionalism
The emergence of large regions within Russia as centres of gravity for polit-
ical and international power, and the changing relationship between these
emerging regions and the centre are critically important factors currently at
work within Russia. This book examines the whole question of Russian
regions and regionalism, including demography, security, military themes
and international relations, and looks at a wide range of particular regions
and case studies. It discusses the extent to which regions have succeeded in
establishing themselves as centres of power, and assesses the degree to which
President Putin is succeeding in incorporating regions into a hierarchy of
power in which the primacy of the centre is retained.
Graeme P. Herd is Professor of Civil–military Relations at the George C.
Marshall Center for Security Studies, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
He was formerly Lecturer in International Relations and Deputy Director of
the Scottish Centre for International Security (SCIS), University of
Aberdeen. He has published extensively on post-Soviet security politics, and
is a Research Associate of the Conflict Studies Research Centre.
Anne Aldis is Research Manager at the Conflict Studies Research Centre,
where she has been an active analyst and facilitator of the processes of
transformation taking place in the states of central and eastern Europe. For
many years she has edited the Centre’s publications, including The Second
Chechen War.

Russian Regions
and Regionalism
Strength through weakness
Edited by Graeme P. Herd
and Anne Aldis
First published 2003
by RoutledgeCurzon
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by RoutledgeCurzon
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 2003 Graeme P. Herd and Anne Aldis; individual chapters © the
individual contributors
All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers. The publisher makes no
representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy
ofthe information contained in this book and cannot accept any
legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions
that may be made.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data
Russian regions and regionalism:strength through weakness/edited by
Graeme P. Herd and Anne Aldis.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Central–local government relations–Russia (Federation)
2. Regionalism–Russia (Federation) 3. Russia (Federation)–Politics
and government–1991– I. Herd, Graeme P. II. Aldis, Anne.
JN6693.5.S8 R88 2002
320.8'0947'090511–dc21 2002028450
ISBN 0-203-22171-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-27625-6 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–7007–1735–8 (Print Edition)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Notes on contributors ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
PART I
Introduction 1
1 Characterising centre–periphery relations in the Yeltsin era 3
MARTIN NICHOLSON
2 Putin: an end to centrifugalism? 19
DR MARK A. SMITH
PART II
Thematic aspects of Russian regionalism 39
3 Russia’s demographic crisis and federal instability 41
PROFESSOR GRAEME P. HERD
4 Transborder security and regionalism 63
DR DEREK L. AVERRE
5 ‘Regionology’and Russian foreign policy:
identifying the theoretical alternatives 82
DR CHRISTER PURSIAINEN
6 Russia’s regionalisation: the interplay
of domestic and international factors 101
DR ALEXANDER SERGOUNIN
vi Contents
7 Military aspects of regionalism 120
DR PAVEL K. BAEV
PART III
Russia’s regions under Putin: case studies 139
8 Sakhalin oblast: sectoral globalisation 141
PROFESSOR MICHAEL BRADSHAW
9 Centre–periphery conflict as a security dilemma:
Moscow v. Vladivostok 164
DR MIKHAIL A. ALEXSEEV
10 The ‘power vertical’and horizontal networking:
competing strategies of domestic and international
integration for Nizhniy Novgorod oblast 185
DR ANDREY S. MAKARYCHEV
11 Regionalisation of Russian foreign and
security policy: the case of St Petersburg 204
DR STANISLAV L. TKACHENKO
12 Kaliningrad: a pilot region? 224
DR STEVEN J. MAIN
13 Moscow: centre and periphery 246
OLEG ALEXANDROV
PART IV
Conclusions 265
14 Russian federal stability and the dynamics
of the twenty-first century 267
ANNE ALDIS AND PROFESSOR GRAEME P. HERD
Appendix: Russia’s regional structure 278
Bibliography 282
Index 297
Illustrations
Figures
1 Russian Federation xvi
8.1 The administrative districts of Sakhalin oblast 142
8.2 Industrial decline 1990–2000 143
8.3 The Sakhalin Oil and Gas Project, as of late 2001 150
8.4 Key axes of interaction 161
Tables
3.1 International migration (per 1,000 population) 42
3.2 Russia’s population (as of 1 January; millions) 43
3.3 Vital statistics (per 1,000 population) 46
3.4 Economically active population (thousands) 55
8.1 Production of important industrial products, 1990–2000 144
8.2 Sakhalin oil and gas projects and participants
(as of late 2001) 151
8.3 Scales and actors influencing the progress
of the Sakhalin projects 158
10.1 Capital of networking actors 189
10.2 Market v. networking strategies 189
10.3 Regional governance 1991–2001 192
10.4 Types of communication 201
11.1 Regional foreign investment in 2000 216

Contributors
Anne Aldis is Research Manager at the Conflict Studies Research Centre,
where she has been an active analyst and facilitator of the processes of
transformation taking place in the states of central and eastern Europe.
For many years she has edited the centre’s publications, as well as the
Strategic and Combat Studies Institute’s The Second Chechen War(2000)
and Central and Eastern Europe: Problems and Prospects(1998).
Oleg Alexandrov is a Doctoral Candidate and Lecturer in International
Relations at Moscow State Institute of International Relations. His main
interest is the role of regions in Russian foreign and security policy. His
major publications include The City of Moscow in Russia’s Foreign and
Security Policy: Role, Aims and Motivations (ETH Centre for Security
Studies and Conflict Research, 2001) and On the Way to the Global
World: Administrative and Networking Strategies of Russia’s Regions (co-
author with Andrey Makarychev, ETH Centre for Security Studies and
Conflict Research, 2001).
Dr Mikhail A. Alexseevis Assistant Professor of Political Science at the San
Diego State University. He is the author of Without Warning: Threat
Assessment, Intelligence, and Global Struggle (St Martin’s Press and
Macmillan, 1997) and the editor of A Federation Imperiled:
Center–Periphery Conflict in Post-Soviet Russia (St Martin’s Press and
Macmillan, 1999).
Dr Derek L. Averreis a Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian and East
European Studies, European Research Institute, University of
Birmingham. His principal research interests are in Russian security and
foreign policy issues, arms control and non-proliferation policy, on which
he has published several articles and book chapters. He is co-editor of
New Security Challenges in Postcommunist Europe: Securing Europe’s
East(Manchester University Press, 2002) and is currently writing a book
on new security thinking in Russia.
Dr Pavel K. Baev is a Senior Researcher and the leader of the Foreign and
Security Policies programme at the International Peace Research