Trends of the territorial organizationof industrial production in post-soviet Russia and their potential environmental consequences
The trends of the territorial organization of industry associated with new construction in post-Soviet Russia have been determined. An exceptional territorial differentiation of industrial construction is revealed, which implies primarily its overconcentration in Moscow oblast as well as in the north- west (St. Petersburg and Leningrad region). The northern and eastern regions of the country are characterized by focal industrial development and the dominance of mining enterprises. In Asian Russia, large-scale industrial construction is allocated to Kuzbass, and Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty- Mansi Autonomous Okrugs, but the “density” of development is small. In the course of market reforms, the total fragmentation of a single national economic complex was replaced by an unstable trend of the spontaneous formation of complexes. The new economic conditions saw the emergence of new sectors and production facilities: development of oil and gas resources on the shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Caspian, Baltic, Pechora and Black Seas; gas liquefaction plants, and automobile assembly enterprises. Analysis of the structure of the new industrial construction did not reveal any signs of its ecologization. Two thirds of the new facilities refer to basic, environmentally “aggressive” sectors. The ever-increasing concentration of the industry in the few areas of economic activities is the main thrust of territorial development of Russia. Emerging in the vicissitudes of the market, it is negative from the ecological as well as geopolitical standpoint.