Ensuring Russia's economic sovereignty by creating and developing trade routes of the 21st century
Authors:   Market Economy Institute of RAS, Zoidov K.Kh. , Medkov A.A. ,   Market Economy Institute of RAS,   Center for Modeling Global Eurasia and Trade Routes of the XXI Century, Zoidov Z.K. ,   Market Economy Institute of RAS
Published: December 2023

The monograph contains the main research results and a system of arguments proving the need and relevance of ensuring the economic sovereignty (ES) of Russia in the world economy through the creation and development of innovative industrial belts (IIB) of trade routes of the XXI century, as directions for further socio-economic development of Russia, and as compensatory mechanisms for conducting foreign state and corporate sanctions. The study proposes a conceptual model of the trade route of the XXI century, the practical application of which will lead to the diversification of the Russian economy, its high-tech transformation, an increase in the share of exports of transport services in GDP, effective entry into the world economy, strengthening of the ES and the development of international cooperation based on the principles of interstate-corporate partnership (ICP). It has been established that after the start of the SMO in Ukraine and the sharp increase in sanctions pressure from the collective West, there was a sharp reversal of cargo flows to the East and South, the main burden of servicing which was assumed by the Eastern Polygon of the Railways of Russia. The current directions of development of the Eastern Polygon of the railways of Asian Russia (AR) have been identified. The main problems of providing rolling stock for cargo transportation from the ports of the Far East deep into the Arctic have been identified and analyzed. Based on a review of scientific approaches, a hypothesis has been put forward that existing approaches to modeling international transport corridors (ITC) do not reflect the full breadth and versatility of the functioning of trade routes and their IIB in the system of formation of Global Eurasia (GE) in the North–South direction. The blocks developed by the authors for modeling the functioning and development of trade routes in the Republic of Azerbaijan in the context of a new economic reality, the reversal of export-import and transit cargo flows to the South and East are presented. Special attention is paid to the organizational and institutional factors of overcoming the negative sides of the «supermahistralization» of the AR transport and transit system (TTS) as the basis for the functioning of the transit economy (TE). It is shown that ensuring the safety of the functioning of transport communications, trade routes and their IIB should be entrusted to the corporate security services of a supranational company. It is established that in the conditions of external sanctions pressure, the tasks of strengthening the ES and ensuring Russia's national security in the transport and logistics field determine the need and relevance of the meridional transformation of the country's TTS. The expediency of creating a single transport and logistics operator on the North–South routes has been proved. It is indicated that when establishing cooperation with African countries, it is preferable for Russia to interact with China within the framework of combining the EAEU infrastructure projects and the «Belt and Road» (B&R) Initiative. It has been established that in order to reduce transit risks and transaction costs of interstate cargo transportation, modernization and expansion of the capacity of railway and automobile border checkpoints, creation of digital trade routes, formation of large transport and logistics companies engaged in transit transportation of goods, development of a strategy for the creation and functioning of a supranational transport and transit company as an effective organizational and institutional form are required circumvention of foreign government and corporate sanctions against Russia.