Subject. Sustainable development of Russian regions. Basic parameters of sustainable development of Russian regions in three spheres: economic, social, and environmental. Objectives. To determine the regions with similar social, economic, and environmental parameters reflecting their level of sustainability and to group them into virtual clusters. To develop a methodological approach to the analysis of the basic parameters of sustainable development of leading Russian regions and to determine the points of stabilisation and destabilisation for these regions. Research methods. Dialectical method, monographic method, comparative analysis, structuring of an array of information - virtual clustering method. Using the dialectical and monographic methods to assess the sustainability of Russian regions, we justified the use of 10 parameters characterising the economic, social, and environmental subsystems of Russian regions. The information array included data about 82 regions for the period between 2017 and 2021. In the study, we calculated the average values of sustainability indicators for each region over the said time period. The regions were grouped using the k-means algorithm and the Statistica software. The degree of sustainability of clusters was assessed based on the sum of mean normalised values of the analysed parameters. A comparison of the mean normalised values obtained for each cluster with mean values for each cluster and each parameter allowed us to determine the points of stabilisation and destabilisation for the leading clusters. Results and discussion. By dividing the regions into groups, we managed to form six homogeneous clusters with a high degree of reliability. They differ in their structural composition of the studied parameters reflecting the level of development of social and economic subsystems of the regions comprising the clusters. The sustainability of clusters was assessed based on the sums of normalised values of the analysed parameters. The leading clusters are A and B. They are far ahead of the medium cluster C. Clusters D, E, and F form a group of outsiders. Economic, social, and environmental parameters were used to determine the points of stabilisation and destabilisation for the leading clusters.
