Features of institutionalization of Russia’s Arctic zone

The article presents an analysis of the formation of the Russian Arctic zone in terms of the institutional approach. Most studies on the structuring of the space of the Russian Arctic analyze the individual aspects of management or describe the process of forming the legal framework of the macro-region. At the same time the object of research, most of all, is a public policy, security or development of natural resources in the region, and the subject is the legal or administrative framework, and control mechanisms. The author emphasizes the common characteristics of the process and gives a detailed description of the regulatory framework. Russian Arctic zone is being created in the framework of the existing national institutional context, but at the same time it is seriously influenced by the international Arctic environment that is being formed. A key aspect of the process is the formation of new and modernization of existing institutional forms (i.e. varieties institutions operating in a national or international environment), which occur in the normative and value-dispositional field and are followed by the formation of organizational and structural framework. The institutionalization of the Russian Arctic has a pronounced descending nature, that is, the mover of this process is the state which initiates the formation of new relationships and social practices in the macro-region. Formation of the different components of the institutional environment of the Arctic zone is uneven. The organizational and structural framework is dynamically developing while the value-dispositional field is unstable and contradictory. On the other hand, the base of the legal outline in the regulatory field is gradually forming. The federal law on the Russian Arctic zone is to become the key document of the base outline. Attempts were made to take the appropriate document in Russia many times: at the end of the 1990s and in 2013. At the moment, a bill is being elaborated, which in September 2016 should be submitted to the Government. The article presents the most important and controversial issues concerning the structure and content of this bill. The author believes that in order to complete the formation of a core set of macro-regulatory field it is necessary to carry out painstaking work to specify and detail the law at the state (federal and regional), municipal and corporate levels.