In 2023, Russia introduced a new mechanism for the Arctic—support, or backbone settlements. What is the meaning behind this strategy?
The concept behind the status of a support settlement means that the city or town defines the development of the region (thus, serves as an anchor or support for the region's development) and receives regular support from the state. In return, the settlement must provide a plan of development until 2035 with clear goals that demand increased investment.
The settlement must carry out polls and conduct an analysis to find all the issues and potential possibilities for development.
For background: the original term oporny gorod is difficult to translate clearly. There are also translations as key city and backbone territories. From a theoretical standpoint, a very close term in economic geography is also Walter Christaller's central place or Standort.
The settlements chosen for enhanced investment are selected based on their strategic value, not the size of the population. The initial 2023 list defined the following Russian settlements with this status:
The key goals of this initiative are to improve the infrastructure along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and to restore industries in smaller settlements. This is evidenced by the presence of agglomerations—not separate cities—and smaller towns like Dikson in this initiative, i.e., the strategy aims to 'anchor' the dispersed infrastructure of the Russian North.
An idea of central places in Russia has received quite a lot of support. Scholars referred to the general idea as 'objectively valuable' and highlighted that it may be the right instrument, provided that official goals are formulated clearly. Officials, both federal and regional, also speak in favour of focused development for the Arctic cities.
The first reasonable sign of the initiative's continuation is the August addition of two more settlements to the list: Polyarnie Zori in the Murmansk Region and Bilibinsky Area in Chukotka.
Master plans of the settlements published during this summer provide an insight into the strategic priorities of the settlements. In general, the issues voiced in master plans refer to the key problems for the major part of the Russian Arctic: a decrease in population and specialists; therefore, the first priorities are concerned with infrastructure, education, and healthcare. For example, the first public results in Anadyr are a new school and improvements to transportation, with further focus on food security; in the Murmansk Region, as we wrote, the priorities are housing and healthcare.
Among the economic priorities, across most Arctic regions, are the development of mineral bases, the NSR, and domestic tourism. Such is the project proposition of a hotel in Dikson, with an image of the town becoming a centre of 'polar tourism'.
In Karelia, on the other hand, the plans seem somewhat uncertain. During the Arctic Our Global Neighbourhood Forum in Petrozavodsk, the idea of a deepwater port was discussed very thoroughly. However, there was no certainty about the scale of the port and the chosen city for it, Kem or Belomorsk. The deficit of population and uncertain profitability were named as the key obstacles to the project. Currently, there is some discussion pointing to the construction of a port in Belomorsk, with a capacity of 10 million tonnes per year, but the plans might still change.
The Editorial Board of the Arctic Century
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