Russian-Kazakhstan Border Territories: On The Way To Form Sibir Cross-Border Macroregions

Abstract

Border regions occupy a significant part of the territory of Russia. All of them are adapted to the conditions of cross-border interactions to varying degrees. This article examines the economic and institutional conditions for interaction between the regions of Russia and Kazakhstan on the Siberian section of the state border within the so-called “cross-border macroregions”. The list of studied border regions of both countries includes regions that have shared borders. The purpose of this article is to select an optimal set of compatibility features between the border regions in order to form a cross-border macroregion in the alignment of the Russian-Kazakh border. The study assesses the readiness of the border regions to cooperate with each other and determines a list of indicators for the monitoring of their development. A hypothesis suggests equal readiness of the border regions of Russia and Kazakhstan to establish cross-border cooperation and sustainable economic relations within the macroregion. The article presents a conceptual model of a transboundary macroregion, which includes the common borders of adjacent regions, their economic specialisation and infrastructure provision. A typology of border regions is based on an assessment of a region’s infrastructure provision and its economic activity. The results show the leadership of the Novosibirsk and Pavlodar Regions. A comparative analysis made it possible to identify three options for the formation of transboundary macroregions based on the correlation of the indicators of geographically close and open to each other border regions of both countries by the leading Russian region within each macroregion – Omsk, Novosibirsk and Altai. The leading role of the Novosibirsk direction in the formation of a transboundary macroregion is determined.