MAIN OIL PIPELINES IN THE GEOPOLITICS OF CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA
The article highlights the outcomes of the research conducted on the transformation of the territorial organization of the Russian oil pipeline transport. The main factors influencing its formation are identified, i.e. the volume of oil reserves and production; the production geography; the volume of domestic demand for oil; conjuncture of the world oil market; the nature of Russia's relations with neighboring countries.Depending on the degree of the above factors impact, the following stages are established in this process: Stage I (30th - 70th years of the XX century) - formation of the oil pipeline system under the influence made by the internal needs of the state and later of the countries involved in socialist cooperation, which determined the priority construction of oil pipelines of national importance, namely, from the place of extraction to the consumer within the state; Stage II (70th-90th years of the XX century) - formation of the territorial organization of the Russian oil pipeline system under the influence of a favorable conjuncture on the world oil market, which stimulated the construction of export pipelines or oil pipelines expanding their resource base in the country; Stage III (90th years of the XX century - XXI century) - construction of major oil pipelines under the influence of mainly problematic relations with the neighboring post-Soviet states.Particular attention is paid to the study of the impact made by the geopolitical factor on the change in the geography of the Russian oil pipeline system in the post-Soviet period. The main geographical directions of these changes are revealed, i.e. due to Russia's desire to escape from the dictates of the transit countries through which oil is / was exported; as a result of Russia's struggle for transportation of oil produced in the basin of the Caspian Sea; under the influence of the struggle for oil transportation routes to the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.Positive changes in the transport infrastructure are identified such as construction of alternative Russian trunk oil pipeline projects: the Trans-Sakhalin pipeline system, Sukhodolnaya-Rodionovskaya, the Baltic Pipeline System II, Tengiz-Novorossiysk, Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean, Skovorodino-Mohe, which reduced Russia's dependence on the neighboring countries. The negative changes are also detected, namely, the construction of the trunk pipeline projects which are alternative to Russia by neighboring states of the post-Soviet space: Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki-Supsa, Trans-Kazakhstani oil pipeline, Kazakhstan Caspian transportation system. Attention is focused on the changing geopolitical significance of the neighboring countries under the influence of the transformation of the overall country's oil pipeline transport geography: Turkey, Kazakhstan, China.The conclusion is made that Russia’s active overcoming of its «transport dependence» on the countries of the post-Soviet space in the field of oil transportation, namely, on Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, leads not only to an obvious improvement in its geopolitical situation, but also creates potential problems due to the use of the territory belonging to other countries, such as Kazakhstan and China, thereby contributing to the strengthening of economic positions and regional ambitions of the countries located in close proximity to the Russian state border.