Development of Regional Import Substitution Policy in the Central Federal District in the Context of New Sanctions Restrictions

Abstract

For a long time, leading enterprises in the regions of the Central Federal District, due to their geographical location and well-established transport and logistics infrastructure, actively interacted with international partners, which resulted in a negative trend of dependence of domestic production on foreign technological equipment and an increase in raw material exports. The risk of economic pressure from Western countries led to the introduction of government policies to support domestic production (import substitution). In turn, the repeated tightening of sanctions against Russia in 2022 accelerated the formation of this policy in the regions of the Russian Federation. Due to the scaling of the import substitution process in the domestic economy, the existing studies examining the problems of developing a regional import substitution policy are currently insufficient. The purpose of this study is to assess the development of regional import substitution policy in the Central Federal District (hereinafter referred to as the CFD). The study was carried out on the basis of a comparative analysis of the socio-economic situation of the regions of the Central Federal District, their geographical and food import structure, classification method, statistical method. The results of the study open a new theoretical direction in the study of the problems of forming a regional import substitution policy in modern economic and political realities. In particular, the author’s interpretation of the concept of “regional import substitution policy” is given and the prerequisites for the development of elements of foreign economic activity are highlighted. Based on a study of the dynamics of trade turnover of the Russian Federation in the period 2012-2022, consideration of the structure of imports and key importing countries of Russia in general, as well as in the context of the Central Federal District, a list of the most import-dependent sectors of the economy was identified. The authors also formulated the problems of further development of regional import substitution policy in the Central Federal District.