Sub-National Actors in Post-Soviet Integration

Abstract

Our discussion has repeatedly stated that the post-Soviet area is extremely heterogeneous in terms of its economic and political development. Moreover, it comprises large countries — Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan — with very significant internal differences. So even territories within individual states are dependent to differing degrees on their links with the FSU. During the 2000s, for example, the proportion of their total foreign trade which individual regions of Russia transacted with the FSU varied from almost nothing (Chukotka) to more than 60 per cent (Altai). Given these variations, sub-national governments are likely to have different preferences regarding post-Soviet regional integration (both regionalism and regionalization).