Abstract
Around 2007, Moscow initiated measures to accelerate the development of the Russian Far East as a national priority, featuring large-scale, state-funded investments in infrastructure. Yet, sanctions and low oil prices complicated the effort. The positive scenario rests on: new measures to improve the business climate, laws enabling “territories of accelerated development” and a “free port of Vladivostok,” and new Chinese interest, despite hardening conditions for investment. The negative scenario points to: 1) commodity prices; 2) China’s actions and Sino-Russian relations; 3) the relations of Russia with Japan, South Korea, and the United States; and 4) policies of the Russian government and local governments. Since 2014, Russian leaders have viewed foreign relations largely through the lens of geopolitics. Opportunities have been squandered with undue optimism about how things were about to change.
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Notes
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Ibid.
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Rens Lee and Artyom Lukin, Russia’s Far East: New Dynamics in Asia Pacific and Beyond (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2016).
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Lukin, A., Rozman, G. (2018). The Russian Far East: Positive Scenarios and Negative Scenarios. In: Rozman, G., Radchenko, S. (eds) International Relations and Asia’s Northern Tier. Asan-Palgrave Macmillan Series. Palgrave, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3144-1_12
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