No abstract

The value of the Arctic regions, for contemporary Russia it is difficult to overestimate the enormous natural resource, geopolitical, and socio-economic potential makes them an area of strategic interests. It is in the Arctic that the main reserves of oil, natural gas, nickel, copper, diamonds, iron, tin, zinc, tungsten, coal and uranium are concentrated. The study revealed that the development of transport infrastructure in the Arctic regions is a priority direction of the implemented “National security strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020“. At the same time, the main purpose of the implementation of this paragraph of the Strategy is to increase the efficiency of industrial development of the Arctic regions, as well as the creation of favorable conditions for improving their socio-economic development. To achieve this goal, it is planned to create a single Arctic transport system, the key element of which will be the Northern sea route. The paper analyzes the state of the main types of transport represented in the regions of the Russian Arctic – road, water, air, rail and pipeline. Being in fact a kind of tool for the implementation of regional and national economic interests, the transport sector plays a key role in the development of these territories, allowing the delivery of raw materials and products to markets. The analysis of transport infrastructure of the Arctic areas showed their moral and physical obsolescence. Despite the fact that the volume of freight traffic transportation by sea in Russia is insignificant, the growth rate of traffic on the Northern sea route in 2018 is impressive.

Development of the Arctic has become the subject of intense attention due to the region’s vast hydrocarbon resources. However, severe environmental conditions and large distances greatly increase the development costs. Because of this, it is crucial to organize rational logistics routes within the Arctic communications system. In recent years, Russia has been taking on a leading role in transportation of hydrocarbons, including oil; there is growing demand from the global community for steady supply of Russian crude oil and petroleum products. At the same time, difficult weather and ice conditions along with poor infrastructure make it a challenge to establish a system for offshore transportation of oil in the Arctic. The paper reviews the Russian experience of sea transportation of oil from the Pechora Sea and the Gulf of Ob, describing a scheme using modern shuttle tankers of reinforced ice class. Apparently, ice tankers of Arc6 and Arc7 classes can be used with virtually no assistance from icebreakers provided that ice conditions are relatively favorable. The unique experience of cooperation in transportation projects accumulated by Russian oil and gas operators, shipping and shipbuilding companies, and financial organizations should prove useful for further development of natural resources of the Arctic.

A distinctive feature of the cyclical dynamics of global development is the rapid transformation of the maxim of “global superiority” into softer forms of leadership on the geopolitical and economic atlas of the modern world, such as “national power” and/or “regional advantage”. This requires a concentration of resources to achieve the latter's mobility on the strategic movement trends of contemporary Russia. The importance of oil and petroleum products in the formation of the Russian Federal Budget and the National Welfare Fund cannot be overestimated. Today, oil is essentially the main source for the successful implementation of the special military operation and, at the same time, ensuring the progressive development of Russia. The article substantiates the necessity to maintain the economic turnover of oil resources development, including in the Arctic, carries out an expert assessment of three options for the development of oil production: reduction of production; reduction of oil exports against the background of increasing domestic consumption; and ensuring the mobility of export supplies to find and develop new markets.

Europe — Eurasia — Asia. Each continent of the vast continent corresponds to a dominant continental power, respectively Germany — Russia — China; in one of them (China), in the zone of conjugation of the Eurasian and Asian continental civilizations, that is, in the Russian-Chinese borderland, a new regional entity is emerging and developing with the attributes of a maritime civilization.Aim. The aim of the study is to solve the scientific problem of matching the national interests of the two countries within this regional maritime space.Tasks. To achieve the goal of the study, the following tasks are being solved: to substantiate the structure of the allocated geopolitical entity and to identify the directions of interaction between the two countries on the basis of coordinating economic and defense activities in the Pacific region.Methods. In this work, the methodological tools of spatial economics and the theory of new economic geography are used, which make it possible to combine geopolitical and economic (geoeconomic) imperatives in a localized space when coordinating joint activities. The core of this formation is the three seas of the Pacific basin adjacent to the territory of China. However, China’s strategic interests extend further, to the north, into the water area of at least two Russian seas. Thus, Russia is also involved in joint maritime activities within the Pacific region.Results. As a result, this creates a space of common national interests, which covers the waters of the five seas and adjacent territories. The regional core of this formation tends to expand, north, east and south, and further west, into the Indian Ocean.Conclusion. The conclusions of the study are that the maritime (more precisely, naval) activities of the two continental powers are essentially becoming the basis of cooperation and cooperation between Russia and China, since Russia can contribute to the implementation of China’s vast national interests only in the defense sphere, providing, in addition, significant, political support for China. As for economic activity, first of all, while meeting the growing demand of the Chinese economy for energy resources (oil, gas and coal), the prospects in this direction lie outside the current planning horizons (until 2035) when implementing large Arctic gas projects. in the water area of the Gulf of Ob “Arctic LNG 1, 2, 3”.