Eastward vector of the demographic development of Russia

The article presents data on the settlement of Siberia and the Far East in the Soviet era and in modern times, analyzes the destruction of the demographic potential of these geopolitically important regions of the country in the past twenty years, substantiates the necessity of giving an eastward direction to the vector of the demographic development of Russia. It shows that Russia has immense natural resources, favorable geographic position and the ability to connect European and Asian centers of production of goods and sales markets through the Trans-Siberian route. But fulfillment of this is hampered by the fact that Siberia and the Far East, without which it is impossible to solve this task, remain the regions with low levels of economic development and of population density. In the 1990s the eastward vector of the demographic development of Russia ceased to be its strategic choice that resulted in reduction in the number of population in the Eastern regions of the country and lagging of the life expectancy in Siberia and particularly in the Far East behind the national average. In the final part the authors substantiate the necessity of developing a strategy for demographic development of the country Eastern regions, as well as the steps that should be taken in the coming years.