Investment processes and structural changes in the economy of old industrial regions of the northwestern federal district

In the changing global geopolitical and geo-economic conditions, the issues related to sustainable growth of the national economy, promoting its pronounced development dynamics and providing it with high technology are among the most important directions for Russia's modern economic policy. The priority tasks of national development require an inflow of large-scale investments in the economy, but the question of their rational distribution remains open, so that the attention of investors is directed mainly toward resource-based activities. At the same time, knowledge-intensive industries, which should be at the forefront of new industrialization, are experiencing a clear lack of investment and are in a state of stagnation. In particular, the above is true for a group of Russia's old industrial regions, in which the described situation is even more serious and leads to de-industrialization against the background of insufficient amount of investment at hand. In this regard, the goal of the paper is to analyze investment processes and assess their impact on the changes in the structure of industrial production on the example of old industrial regions of the Northwestern Federal District. We have chosen this object for our study due to the fact that these subjects of Russia occupy one of the worst positions among all old industrial territories according to a number of economic and social parameters. Scientific novelty of our work consists in the need to reveal modern patterns of socio-economic processes and identify structural deformations in the economy. The findings of our study reflect the current state of investment processes and the nature of structural transformations in the old industrial regions of the Northwestern Federal District, taking place against the background of strengthening resource-based industries. Practical significance of the findings is determined by the fact that they contribute to a better understanding of the current socio-economic situation of the sample under consideration and are useful for further study of the specifics of these territories and the problems they face.