Место издания:ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО РЕСПУБЛИКИ СЕРБСКОЙ Баня-Лука
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Аннотация:Russia needs to fit into the international geopolitical and geo-economic landscape. The formation of this landscape is largely determined by alternating integration and disintegration cycles in the development of the world economy. The second global disintegration cycle that started in 2008 is expected to last 15-20 years. It will be followed by a new integration cycle, largely dependent on China (Pax Sinensis instead of Pax Americana). This change necessitates a number of steps: a significant strengthening of the Eastern vector in the development of Russia, the formation of the Moscow-Beijing-New Delhi triangle (as proposed by Evgeny Primakov) as well as providing access of energy-intensive and water-intensive goods from East Siberia by railway to the Chinese and Indian markets. Russia should express its interest in the construction of a railway from China to India. The integration in the Silk Road project allow Russia to reduce transportation costs and use a potentially heavy transit traffic for the modernization of the Trans-Siberian railway. These steps could radically change the role of the Baltic exclave of Russia: from being a ‘window to Europe’ the region is to turn into the westernmost point of an infrastructure axis extending from east to west. The creation of such an axis, combined with a sharp fall in transportation costs will facilitate the access of energy-intensive and water-intensive goods from the Urals and Siberia not only to the Asian but to the European markets also. The Kaliningrad region is increasingly taking on business facilitating functions, which used to be performed by the Soviet Baltic republics in the past. The region can play a more important role in the formation of Eurasia stretching from Shanghai to St. Petersburg (according to Dmitry Trenin), instead of the Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok. The proliferation of Big Eurasia to the West starts with areas of instability, which can be attributed to the Balkans. Where are no pronounced regional leader, shaping the rules of the game for himself, there is a freedom to choose the integration project.