On the ability of regions to adapt to various external shocks

In order for Russia to successfully respond to current challenges and to prepare for new challenges, it is important to analyze the contribution of regions to solving these tasks. The basis for assessing the sustainability of the Russian regions’ economies can be their reaction to the shocks they have already experienced. The article examines economic development of the regions in the context of the 2009 crisis caused by the Great Recession and the 2020 crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The choice of these very different crises was determined by the aim of the study, which is to find out how universal the ability of regions to adapt to various external shocks is. The sustainability of a region is assessed by comparing its development indicators and data on the economy as a whole. The comparison is based on the dynamics of gross product and changes in innovation activity over periods that overlap the years of business downturn. Groups of regions with different levels of stability are identified and several characteristics of these groups are given. In contrast to the point of view available in the literature, it is shown that a very successful overcoming of one crisis by a region often cannot be repeated in a crisis of another origin. We identify a group of regions, which we can characterize as possessing a relatively universal dynamic stability in the sense of gross regional product growth. As for innovation sustainability, only some of the regions were able to maintain it in different types of crises. In general, for the period from 2008 to 2021, no connection was found between the growth of gross regional product and the regions’ innovative activity estimated by the increase in the volume of innovative goods, works, and services.