The paradoxes of spatial development in Russia
Objective of the study is to identify the main trends in the development of Russian regions that were formed throughout the post-Soviet period. The article presents the results of a retrospective analysis of data obtained in the course of studies of Russian regions from the early 1990s to 2022. The methodological basis of the research. In the course of the study, various theoretical and methodological approaches were used, including A. Touraine's actionism, actor-network theory, the concept of a society of universal risk, the concept of a systemic accident. Perrow and a number of others, including the approach developed by the author of the article based on the contradiction of free and normalized action. Qualitative methods of data collection and analysis were used in the research. A retrospective study of their results is based on the interpretation of globalization as flows and networks and the theory of the global city. Research results. The article shows that spatial development is not identical to regional development, and economic development in the regional space may be unrelated or poorly connected with the vital activity of local society. Its main actors are Moscow (at the place of registration and payment of taxes) corporations. The formalization and bureaucratization of the federal administration increases the possibilities of its centralization, which does not contribute to regional development. Governance in Russian conditions has always combined centralization with a certain freedom of action of regional and local actors due to the vastness of the territory and the diversity of regional life. The lack of autonomy in decision-making at the regional and local levels, standardization of requirements in vital areas for the population (education and health) lead to their degradation and, as a result, become factors of depopulation of vast territories. Modern spatial transformations are focused on the formation of a communication network characteristic of the era of globalization with large agglomerations as nodes. It has an indirect relation to the development of regions, being carried out on their territory and at the expense of their resources. The article also demonstrates the traditional connection between industrial and socio-cultural development in Russia on the example of the Chelyabinsk region. It is shown that the technocratic nature of modern transformations leads to the formation of a cosmopolitan identity. Prospects of the study are connected with further research of the main vectors of territorial and spatial development of Russian regions, which are associated with the economic, technological and socio-cultural development of Russia as a whole.