Strategic development priorities for the Karelian Arctic region in the context of the Russian arctic zone economic space integration

The Russian Arctic has been attracting a growing interest in terms of research and management. The former is due to the lack of knowledge about current processes in its development in the rapidly changing internal and external environments, and the latter is driven by the rising significance of this macroregion in ensuring the country’s economic, ecological, geopolitical stability, and national security. Being interdependent, these interest spheres evidence the demand for the study of Arctic regions, especially newly established ones, and underlie its practical value, which consists in building the analytical foundations for working out and implementing the administrative mechanisms for socio-economic space integration in Arctic regions. Hence, the aim of this study is to define the strategic development priorities for the regional socio-economic system of the Karelian Arctic as a newly established region in the context of the multifarious Russian Arctic integration processes. This aim is achieved through the following tasks: analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the socio-economic system of the Karelian Arctic, identification of key challenges and opportunities for its development, identification of the strategic priorities to overcome threats and realize opportunities. The principal methods were expert and in-depth interviews, SWOT analysis and content analysis, the dialectic method and system approach, which were applied in the context of the propositions of spatial economics. As a result of the study, characteristics of the Karelian Arctic’s socio-economic system are identified in the context of the high-relevance problems of managing the development of the Arctic macroregion as a complex system. Directions for further research are defined, with the aim to build the scientific foundations for managing the spatial development of the Russian Arctic zone and its constituent regions and for handling the challenges hindering such development.