Cities in spatial development of the Russian economy

The Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025, adopted in 2019, defines one of its main goals as “ensuring sustainable and balanced spatial development of the Russian Federation”. The Strategy does not specify what kind of balance is meant in this very case. However, it’s quite obvious that regardless of how this “balance” is interpreted, its essential feature or criterion should be considered as sufficient uniformity in the development of the country’s living space, the maintenance of a stable ratio of its large, medium and small cities, as well as all other settlements. For such a geographically huge country, this task has not only a significant economic and social meaning, but also fully meets the requirements of the national and economic security of the state. The question of the role of cities in the development of the optimal spatial structure of the Russian economy in modern conditions is “full” of a large number of specific aspects, including the ratio of urban and rural population, the structure of urban settlements, the nature of the development of agglomeration processes, etc. Agglomerations increasingly become a leading trend in the formation of the urban environment, i.e. an important, but not a problem-free result ofurbanization. The Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025 does not give a complete picture of the desired direction of urban development in the country. The document pays attention to agglomeration processes, but this does not cover the range of problems of positioning the entire set of urban settlements in the economy and social sphere of the Russian Federation and its federal entities.