Support Settlements: A New Vector of Municipal Reform in Russia

The article emphasizes that the adoption in 2019 the first in the domestic practice of public administration Spatial Development Strategy and its subsequent updating in 2025 confirmed the need for the continuous perfection of the institutional and instrumental apparatus of the spatial regulation and regional development policy. One of the most interesting innovations in this area, presented in the Spatial Development Strategy 2025, should be considered the “launch” of the institute of so-called anchor or support settlements. In our opinion, this measure has certainly serious constructive and simultaneously quite problematic sides. The former consist in actual attempts to restore, taking into account the experience of previous years, the principle of support in the formation of institutions of spatial development, primarily at the regional and sub-regional level. In turn, the negative context is seen in the absence of a detailed consideration of the conditions and mechanisms for the practical implementation of the principle of support in the context of certain situations of spatial development.