International Transport Corridors in the Context of Developing Russia’s Transit Potential

Abstract

Abstract—: The volume of transit and balance of sold and purchased transit services reflects the peculiarities of Russia’s geoeconomic position, which the author understands as the position relative to the surrounding global economies and links that ensure their trade and economic ties. Russia’s transit potential as an element of its geoeconomic position is still far from being used to the fullest extent. Federal strategic documents pose the problem of its fuller use, especially since, as a result of the shift in the global economy to Asia, the gap between its potential and actual use is widening. The volume of transit traffic depends on the dynamics of trade in Russia’s neighboring countries, the development of transport infrastructure and logistics that ensure its connection with neighbors, the availability of alternative traffic options, geopolitical conditions, and the nature of national regulation of transit traffic between Russia and its neighbors. In the context of globalization, transit has changed from a way of overcoming natural or created political and economic isolation to a tool for accelerating trade turnover. In the current conditions of exacerbated geopolitical contradictions, transit is again becoming a tool for economic pressure and, at the same time, it is the result of searching for alternative traffic links. Problems involving the export of transit services have receded into the background compared to the problem of creating a new logistics for Russia’s foreign trade. International transport corridors occupy a central place in its solution. Their formation depends on coordination of the transport and foreign trade policy of Russia and its neighbors. In turn, the effects of this coordination depend on the coordinated development of Eurasian regional associations: EAEU, CIS, SCO, Caspian Five, Belt and Road megaproject.