Eastern vector of politics in Russia: potential and problems of the realization

The Asia-Pacific region is the leader of a global economic growth today, and the nearest neighbor Russia. We have to remember that, of 17.1 million square km in Russia for almost 14 million square feet. Km is in Asia. Even the simple proximity of any country to develop dynamically and are more resistant to crises the region gives it the geopolitical and geo-economic preferences. Russia's north-east has also two clear competitive advantages in relation to other parts of the country: 1) the geo-strategic ‘bridge’ between Europe and Asia; 2) the main resource and the energy potential of the country. These two strategic advantages to skillfully defend and fully used for the successful development of the state. Reformatting eastern geo strategy Russia means a fundamental change of the investment, migration, ethno and customs policies to create a favorable climate for the development of the region. Selecting the wrong regional development strategy, or lack thereof – is a serious threat to national security.

The Far East has everything you need to become an integral part of the future epicenter of the world development. However, many problems associated with the Far Eastern territories underdeveloped infrastructure, and turns them into a sort of ‘Inhabited Island’ on the one hand, separated from the ‘mainland’ crazy transport and other fees, which make locally produced products initially uncompetitive in the domestic market on the other – from rapidly developing Asian countries due to sharp differences between the standards of the economic and administrative mechanisms. It should also be noted that the Far East (41 % of the territory of the country) is actually just started timidly examined for amounts of mineral reserves.

‘Economic island’ Far East continues to ‘drift’ in the format of the raw material supplier and its products of primary processing both for Russia and for the Asia Pacific region. Unfortunately, the implementation of mega-projects of the regional ‘spill’ continues to conquer the Soviet extensive model northern expanses with serious social and humanitarian consequences. Geopolitical expediency as plain text dictates its full integration of the Far East to the Pacific ‘mainstream’. Creating knowledge-intensive and resource-intensive industries using the most advanced technologies in the background of the effective use of available human resources is the main direction of development of the economy of the Far Eastern territories.

The Far East and the northeastern China is well positioned to complement each other, here there is a huge market potential interactions. Very real prospect of the general development of the neighboring territories of the two countries and the establishment of a real and effective in practice, cross-border region. True, we act as a raw material appendage of our neighbor. Reach a hand in the federal government to the processing and export of products made out of it - a rhetorical question. Whether income from cross-border cooperation and trade with China to invest in the modernization of the real north-eastern territories? There not a danger of the actual involvement of the formal Russian territory in China's economy?

Among the first steps to create a common economic space of the Far East and Asia Pacific to provide a gradual easing of restrictions on the free movement of capital, services, technology and labor, integration of energy and transportation systems. The implementation of these and other measures will help in a few decades in the region is to form a new economic system, organically included in the international division of labor based on the relatively free distribution of resources between the Far East and neighboring countries. This will contribute to a more active and attracting foreign investment to the region as a whole.

The study of the integration process in the light of globalization requires developing the concept of dialogue among civilizations as an adequate response to the global challenges (ethnic religious, geopolitical, environmental, and cultural). The specifics of the vast region, which includes primarily cultural and civilization diversity and development methods, allows to work here a kind of model of a comprehensive strategy to maintain harmony among civilizations in the world. For us it is extremely useful to see the ‘Asian face’ of globalization, carefully study the phenomenon of soft entry into the global world of Japan and China, which for centuries maintained a policy of selfisolation from the rest of the world. The Russian leadership is desirable to distance them from the primitive Euro centrism, leading mankind to the unification of all spheres of society and the establishment of a unipolar world. Orientation is on the eastern political traditions can save the world from environmental and moral catastrophes, would help Russia quickly restore its geopolitical code and returns the status of a great power. Obviously, in the Asia-Pacific region has created a completely new alternative model of interaction between civilizations, based on cultural and historical traditions. Asia shows high resistance to various kinds of crises, confidently course of gradual economic modernization while maintaining social and political stability as an essential condition of national existence. Asian countries have paid special attention to safety, believing that the concerted efforts in their decision not to undermine their sovereignty.

At the present, Russia has been a surge of the interest in the development of the regional strategies. In a sense, resuscitated technology of the centralized state planning and management, developed and tested in the USSR. Currently being developed by the regional medium-term development strategy (the most ‘daring’ to 2030) are generalized schemes of the territorial development, although the detail of the modern techno-economic elaborations markedly inferior planning document 1970–1980's. In the development of regional strategies observed inertia of Soviet planned approach. This explains the fact that the governing documents remain in the sectoral approach, and the most poorly designed units are territorial strategic documents. Even a cursory analysis of the proposals in the far eastern Russian regions of promising territorial macroeconomic structure shows that define the medium term remain points of growth started in the Soviet era.

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) – is the Russian leader in a planned mega-projects on its territory as to their amount and on the investment. The largest region of Russia turns into a kind of playground ambitious geo-economic and geopolitical strategies of the Russian leadership. Republic was one of the first subjects of the Far East, which has developed a long-term development of the document – a comprehensive scheme of development of productive forces, Transport and Energy of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) to 2020.

According to this document, it is assumed, first, to create the conditions for a stable operation of the basic industries: mining of diamonds, gold, tin, coal, natural gas, diamond cutting and jewelery industry, wood processing and the production of agricultural products and, secondly, on the basis of a number of large-scale the project is planned to create a new sub-sector of mining and energy sector: oil production and refining, coal chemistry, mining of iron ore and metallurgical production, gas processing and gas chemistry, uranium mining, and, third, the implementation of the projects involves the rapid development of transport and energy infrastructure.

The main condition for the implementation of these projects and a substantial increase in the rate of the economic growth is the active use of any and all instruments of public-private partnership with co-financing from the federal budget.

Total investments only on major projects is estimated at 2.5 trillion, most of which should be held by private investors – 1.9 trillion rubles (76 %), the cost of the budget of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) – 55 billion, the federal budget based on the Investment Fund of the Russian Federation – 548 billion [1].

Megaprojects of Yakutia have a pronounced effect of interregional and functionally related to the implementation of major investment projects in the neighboring territories of Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krai, Irkutsk and Amur regions. The results of the implementation of the investment projects will give impetus to the development of infrastructure as well as in the development of mineral resources in these regions. Great social effect of the development of gas fields of Eastern Russia will gasification of settlements of Yakutia, Amur region, Primorsky, Khabarovsk Territory and the Jewish Autonomous Region. Would develop oil refining and petrochemical production in Primorye, Khabarovsk Krai and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Development of large deposits and investment projects will promote development of areas adjacent to the railway lines. Large-scale construction of railways and roads will create a robust ground communication with the far eastern parts of Russia, will promote the development of ports of Primorye Territory.

Characteristically, that the Russian public opinion clearly supports all the initiatives of the federal center and the republic for the development of the region (88 %), but above all as a raw material in the region. 33 % of the respondents believe, that the priority development of Yakutia is the extraction of the natural resources and their sale to maximize profits. Opposing them about a quarter (24 %) of respondents who believe that the country could become a testing ground for the development of high technology. Around one in six (18 %) believe that there is nothing more important than the people in the country to ensure adequate conditions of life. And 14 % believe the priority infrastructure – transport and communications. According to the Russians, Saha should continue to deliver the diamonds to the world market (49 %), the extraction of gold (42 %) and to adjust the supply of oil and gas (38 %) [2].

Undoubtedly, the major changes coming in the life of the Yakut society associated with the implementation of mega-projects. Some of them already are gaining rapid momentum. This is especially true of migration. Today we can observe significant growth of other nationalities are not specific to the region. And this is happening against the background of the outflow of the Russian population and the imminent decline in fertility on the basis of ‘syndrome collapse of the USSR’.

Add to this monstrous income differentiation on industrial and agricultural ulus and elevated levels of unemployment compared with other regions of the Russian Federation, the prevailing ethnic and political reality can cause bursts of protest. However, the ‘first signs’ were the events in September 2007 in the capital of South Yakutia Neryungri essentially provoked illiterate management Transneft for laying a pipeline ESPO yuzhnoyakutsky region. Demonstrative importation of cheap labor from China and escalation ‘in shifts’ by orgnabora from the central regions of Russia have caused great dissatisfaction of the local population, which is already suffering from the syndrome of permanent unemployment. Unfortunately, the current volatile situation benefited members of the regional cell DPNI, managed by distributing provocative leaflets to organize a series of unlawful acts against attracted from outside the labor force. Happened events have demonstrated that domestic xenophobia, have long since become a problem for the Russian cities, in the country seriously considered and not considered. Thus, taking place in the South Yakutsk region in the socioeconomic processes have a significant potential for conflict that emerged not only because of the global crisis and the depletion of the previous stage of the industrial development, but ‘thanks’ to the low efficiency of management decisions of the regional power and low social responsibility.

Social cataclysms occurring completely random. The fact that the development of the regional and corporate strategies is determining sectoral approach. Competitive strategic plan can be developed only in a multilateral and constructive dialogue between business, government and society. Today there is little doubt of the need for public involvement in the development, implementation and monitoring of the strategic project. Strategic plan ceases to be purely administrative document. It is rather a social contract agreement, according to which the government, enterprises and public organizations take on certain obligations. Its design and implement all the contributors to the development of the territory, with the interests and involvement of various state and non-state actors. The ideology of the social responsibility is rooted in the concept of the sustainable development, allow you to build a relationship between the government, business and society, which is based on the return of the business share of the rents from natural resources to society, including future generations.

In the fierce competition for the natural resources in the world Yakutia is, perhaps, the lure of pristine nature reserves. Today is a kind of reincarnation of the Soviet model of industrial development, or, more precisely, ‘the conquest of the north’. True, the format has been changed in this process: in the old days the country had a much larger territory, natural and human resources. Now the situation is quite the opposite – the country has suffered significant geopolitical and demographic losses and minerals have a tendency to dry out and deeper ‘hide’ in the earth's crust.

Has not changed, only one – the almost complete disregard of environmental issues and local issues during the development of energy and mineral resources. The territory of the republic is a space with enormous natural resources, and is already experiencing tough expansion of Russian business. This leads, on the one hand, to the ‘opening’ of the region and creates a vertically integrated companies primarily in the economic sphere, on the other – makes the regional elite to learn complex skills of political bargaining in order to maintain the balance of interests in the region.

Successful implementation of mega-projects will give a new impetus to the improvement of quality of the life and social problems. However, one can avoid the danger of a ‘new colonization’ during the development of natural resources in Yakutia, where completely ignored the interests of the people and situations, and the area, as before, is doomed to remain a ‘raw materials appendage’ center. Unfolding ‘project of the century’ will inevitably attract to the country, tens of thousands of migrant workers, which can turn the region into a hotbed of acute social unrest and ethnic tensions. To avoid the recurrence of ‘colonial’ approach and provide a civilized start a new phase of large-scale development of the resource potential of the region, there should be full participation of the local population and to attract highly qualified personnel for the implementation of the projects.

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has a special role in the geopolitical space of Russia. It stems primarily from these basic criteria of geopolitics as having immense space (1/5 of the territory of the Russian Federation) and the vast natural resources, access to the sea, close proximity to the future of the center of the world's development. Yakutia is a key region for the implementation of the national interests of Russia in the Asia-Pacific region, a sort of window to Asia. In the future, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) could become a base for development of rich mineral resources of the Arctic shelf and the North of Russia. With the loss of access to the Baltic and Black Seas Russia objectively increasing importance adrift in the post-Soviet period of the Northern Sea Route. The shortest, fastest and cheapest way of connecting the Pacific and Atlantic regions, lies just across the Arctic Ocean. This factor cannot be overstated: the Northern Sea Route to halve road from Europe to Japan and China, besides it is 1.6 times cheaper than other routes. Russian North, stretching from Finland to Alaska, is the foundation of a potential geopolitical reconstruction. However, Russia is experiencing excessive momentum in the development of the northern territories.

Undeveloped oil and gas reserves in the Arctic in recent years have become an occasion for the political statements of a number of the leaders from the USA, Norway, Denmark, Canada and

Russia. Unfolding struggle is not accidental – is in a short time the UN Special Commission must begin to consider the applications of the coastal states and define the outer boundaries of the continental shelf, which can lay claim to every country that has ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982 the summer of 2008, the Security Council of Russia approved the Basics state policy in the Arctic, based on the results obtained in the course of the several research expeditions. In the near future, Russia plans to issue limits of its continental shelf in the Arctic, which has strategic importance for the country. The fact that the area of the Russian Arctic continental shelf beyond the 200-mile economic zone may be about 1.2 million square km. According to the experts, are concentrated between 83 and 110 billion tons of hydrocarbons in oil equivalent (16 billion tons of oil and over 82 trillion cubic meters of gas). They are distributed in 16 major offshore oil and gas provinces and basins. Most of these resources (about 66.5 %) are in the northern seas: the Barents, Pechora and Kara [3]. Exploration in the Arctic ice will inevitably face technical difficulties, which will allow only by creating a powerful infrastructure continental base. In Yakutia for this role the best conditions. The total length of the sea coastline of the region is more than 4.5 thousand square km – that's 10 % of the coast of the Arctic Ocean. In the coastal zone of the republic only proven mineral reserves estimated at 700 billion dollars. There are two sea ports (Tiksi and Green Cape) serving Northern Sea Route. Now the ports are working 90 days a year, provide the delivery of goods to the villages located on the banks of rivers Olenyok, Kolyma, Indigirka and John, as well as the New Siberian Islands. True, there are attempts to establish of the export supplies of oil and coal from deposits in the South Yakutia. However, for the offshore and maintenance of the new economy of the whole of Yakutia in the future maritime infrastructure clearly requires a radical renovation and expansion. It is possible that the growth of proved reserves and increasing oil and gas in the Arctic shelf will require a pipeline to connect to the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO). Not excluded to the ESPO oil pipeline from the oil and gas provinces located in the north-west of the country. Expediency ‘march north’ will increasingly grow as the depletion of conventional sources of raw materials and the increased cost of its production in Yakutia and in the whole of Russia. In addition, the development of the north of the republic and the Arctic shelf is not only economic, but also a fundamental geopolitical significance, which establish the borders of Russia and strengthens its role in the eastern Arctic, and in the whole region of Siberia and the Far East. Time-to-shelf is now called, of course, too early. However, almost all the government-Russia transport projects in Yakutia (the radical modernization of the existing support of transport, such as river and sea fleet, creating port infrastructure, road and rail, necessary for the development of continental wealth Yakutia) are both large-scale preparation for entering the High North and the Arctic shelf. As a result of their implementation of Yakutia peripheral, marginal region must be transformed into a hub cross-border region, the base for the Arctic shelf.

Russian's geopolitical influence in the world will be largely determined by the real capacity of the geo-economic potential of the eastern territories and the creation of favorable conditions for the development of cross-border cooperation. The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is able to play in the twenty-first in the geo-strategic scenarios key role. The ‘reset’ geo strategy eastern Russia means a fundamental change in the investment, migration, ethno and customs policies to create a favorable climate for the development of the region. Selecting the wrong regional development strategy, or lack thereof - is a serious threat to the national security.