Spatial management of the shipping routes in the Russian Arctic

The new plans for Russian Arctic development are predetermined by changes in the external economic environment and the state’s internal policy. In May 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced new development guidelines for the Northern Sea Route. Later on, the documents related to the strategic development of the Russian Arctic zone were approved. In these documents, the Northern Sea Route development is highlighted as one of the main directions of competitive national transport communication of the Russian Federation on the global market. The purpose of the research is to determine the role of the Northern Sea Route in the country’s spatial and socio-economic development in the context of the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2025. The long-term plans launched various economic, political, and other socially significant processes in the Russian Arctic, which led to the formulation of two research tasks. The first one is to consider the main approaches to the spatial management of the regional economy and to present the implementation of the spatial economyprovisions in case of the Northern Sea Route that is the center of the Arctic space “assembly”. The second one is to reveal the Northern Sea Route potential as a transport and logistics highway in the transit traffic area, transportation of raw materials, and ensuring vital activity of the population of the Northern regions in deliveries of goods to the Northern territories. As a result of the research, the authors have identified the main trends in the NSR development: strengthening of Russia’s domestic economic policy, aimed at activating business processes in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, and the usage of the NSR as an international transit highway. Data analysis on transportation of raw materials and goods deliveries to the Northern territories indicates that inland navigation will soon be a dominant type of navigation on the Northern Sea Route.