Economic Macroregions: An Integration Phenomenon or a Political Geographic Rationale? Far Eastern Russia Case

The dividing of Russian economic space into macroregions is presented in Strategy of Spatial Development of Russian Federation as a key fragment of the policy mobilizing the spatial factor of national economic development. The article considers the general problem of economic zoning as a means of formalizing the structure of the national economic space, the allocation of interacting territorial fragments within its borders. It is shown that in the presence of canonical solutions to the problem of spatial breakdown at the theoretical level (for example, W. Christaller hexagons), there is no empirical solution common for all types of spaces and for all time periods. It is noted that in Russia, the USSR and the Russian Federation the task of determining the optimal network of economic regions has always been and still remains a key one as is stressed in the recently endorsed the Strategy. Its content has a fundamental peculiarity both due to a large scale of the geographical space concerned, its exceptional heterogeneity and a high degree of polarization of the economic space. We are speaking about the multi-level economic zoning where a special position in the system of economic regions is vested with macroregions. The authors consider the criteria for allocating large economic regions and analyze the validity of recognizing 12 macroregions in the Far Eastern Economic Macroregion according to Strategy formed by the administrative inclusion of the Zabaikalsky Krai and the Republic of Buryatia in the Far Eastern Federal District. The article analyzes the theoretical and empirical foundations of the new macroeconomic zoning. Particular emphasis is laid on determining the configuration of market zones of the Russian Federation constituent entities. It is shown that neither the former macroregion under the Far Eastern Federal District nor the one formed in November 2018 meets the economic criteria for breaking down the economic space, as they represent a more chaotic set of multidirectional market zones rather than a relatively homogenous economic landscape