The ISE Center Launched a New International Network Project "Russia’s Future: A View from the Center and Regions"

The ISE Center launched a new international network project, "Russia’s Future: A View from the Center and Regions." The project aims to make a forecast of the development of the economic, political, and social situation in Russia, which relies on expert analyses of regional situations. Based on these forecasts recommendations for optimizing key decision making at the federal and regional levels will be developed.

Under this project, CASES in cooperation with resource centers and international partner organizations will work in the following areas:

1. Economic Unit

Resource center: Institute of World Economics and International Relations, RAS
"The Impact of Economic Factors on the Political Development of Russia: Long-term Scenarios until 2020"
This research will focus on the following aspects of the analysis and appraisal of Russian economic development scenarios:

• Budgetary federalism
• Resource utilization
• Structural shifts in the economy
• Relations of regional economic processes with the political system, and the search for an adequate political governance system
• Business structure and general business environment
• The housing and utilities reform and its political implications
• The general problem of the government—business relationship
• Economic growth rate and quality

2. Social Unit

Resource center: Institute of Sociology, RAS

"Russia’s Future: A View from the Center and Regions – Social Dimension"
Research activities within this area will concentrate on the following subjects:

• Key characteristics of the social stratification of a region
• Labor market
• Education: present state
• Public health: present state
• Regional social policy models and the effectiveness of social reform policies
• Business as a subject of regional social policy
• Civil society and community initiatives

3. Political Unit

"Russia’s Future: A View from the Center and Regions – Political Dimension"
Resource center: Moscow State University
The scientific purpose of this area is to develop medium-term (to 2015) forecasts of the political future of the Russian Federation as a whole, as well as some of its constituent members, based on in-depth analysis of its development trends.

The problem area of the political unit comprises:

• Institutional design of the Russian political system
• Russian political elite: composition and size
• The politico-geographic image of Russia in the future
• The dynamics of mass conscience and the political values of the citizenry.

4. International Relations Unit

"The Relations of the Russian Center and Regions in the Context of Development of the International Environment until 2015".

Resource center: Moscow State Institute (University) of International Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

This research initiative is to work out a set of development scenarios for Russia and Russian regions, as well as Center—region relations in the context of the international environment development options for the period until 2015.

The project is premised on an organic and ever closer relationship of domestic and international (global) processes, the latter being viewed as independent variables, which largely determine domestic policy trends.

An attempt will be made to work out and analyze development scenarios with an allowance for the shift of the original analytical focus toward international environment development scenarios as a factor influencing the internal development of Russia, its federal center, and its regions.

Two conferences in the framework of this project are planned for February 2006:

• A conference tentatively named "Russia’s Future: A View from the Center and Regions" is to be held in Moscow on February 20-21
• "Russia’s Future: Development Scenarios" is the name of a conference to be held, jointly with the Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, on February 23-25.

As the project progresses, an information page for the "Russia’s Future: A View from the Center and Regions" project will be set up at the CASE central site www.iriss.ru, to publish project news and other content.