Transboundary Clustering in Russia’s Baltic Coastal Zones Amid Geopolitical Turbulence

Abstract

The gravitation of the economy and population towards seacoasts is a universal trend, which is turning marine environments not only in hotbeds of environmental problems but also into arenas for active transnational economic collaborations. In this study, I address economic integration in the Baltic region—particularly, in its Russian segment—and the effect of today’s geopolitical turbulence on transboundary clustering. The methodological and theoretical framework for this research spans the theories of globalisation, economic regionalism, and the ‘maritime factor’ in transboundary integration and clustering. In this work, I present the Baltic region as an aquatic-terrestrial international socioeconomic and environmental-economic system, the development of which was initiated by the rapid European integration in the post-Soviet period. The growing geoeconomic influence of China, India, and other countries of South and East Asia and the geopolitical divergence between Russia and the West shape the new reality of the second decade of the 21st century. I demonstrate that, in these conditions, Russia’s Baltic areas (the Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions and Saint Petersburg) retain their potential for transboundary cooperation and transboundary clustering. I emphasise that a central priority is a geoeconomic diversity of emerging and mature clusters’ connections. To this end, the ‘maritime factor’ should be used to full extent, which requires the development of seaport infrastructure.