ИСТИНА

The shift to the East, the formation of the Greater Eurasia has become an important national goal throughout the first half of the XXI century if not throughout the century as a hole. The misery of the Pacific facade of Russia becomes the main defect is its geopolitical and geo-economic situation, much more serious than the loss of the Baltic and Black sea ports. The system of central places in the far East has not yet formed, Yakutsk and regional centers of the Far East Federal District gravitate to Moscow much stronger than to Vladivostok or Khabarovsk, with the single exception of Birobidzhan. Big Vladivostok should become a powerful regional capital in the future – the third city of Russia, St. Petersburg on the Pacific. Khabarovsk has a less advantageous geographical position and has no significant development resources at the expense of agglomeration. Already, the population of Vladivostok can be doubled by formation of agglomerations, but this will require in many cases a completely new transportation solutions because of the difficult terrain and the rugged coastline. We may need the use of hovercrafts, and in the future – the wing-in-surface-effect ships as the agglomeration transport. Big Vladivostok with a population of 1.5-2 million inhab. in 15-20 years will be able to lead the system of central places in the Far East with K=2. The theoretical possibility of the existence of such a system was showed by A. A. Vazhenin. Khabarovsk will be at the 2nd level of the hierarchy, Yakutsk and Blagoveshchensk – on the 3rd, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Magadan – on the 4th. Such a system of central places will have unprecedented territorial coverage – millions of square kilometers.