Between Europe and Asia: some of the regional peculiarities of Russia’s participation in the forming Greater Eurasia
The concept of “Greater Eurasia” denotes a certain area of international cooperation on the Eurasian continent, and filling it with specific projects and creating international institutions for this depends on the will and interests of the participating countries. Russia occupies a position close to the center in this space, which means that it has a wide range of neighboring countries and the shortest land routes connecting the countries of this part of the world pass through it. The article discusses changes in the geographical structure in which the share of the PRC is continuously growing. At the same time, the share of Eurasian countries in foreign trade of Russia steadily holds about 90%. Russia and its partners in the EAEU are located between the EU and China, the volume of trade between them in 2018 amounted to about 700 billion dollars. Mutual positions of the participating countries leads to an increase in the transit potential with an agreed transport and customs policy of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, as well as other post-Soviet countries, since transcontinental transport corridors pass through them. Intercontinental transit has become an important factor in Eurasian integration. It was the result of the joint efforts of the EAEU countries, which made it possible to enter the world market for transcontinental transport with a common transport and logistics product and to make greater use of the potential of the transit position. Occupying a vast territory in Eurasia, Russia through economic partnerships can fasten different countries of the continent using the position and economic potential of their regions. So far this is mainly through Central Russia. At the same time, when transitioning to the practical implementation of the “Greater Eurasian Partnership” concept, one should fully take into account the specifics of individual Russian regions in the context of both their development and their role in strengthening the economic connectivity of the Greater Eurasian Partnership countries.