Press Release, 10.10.2023

On 9 October, the Yabloko Party University hosted a lecture “Russian Regions in the New Economic Conditions”. The lecturer was Natalya Zubarevich, Professor of the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University and Doctor of Geographical Sciences.

Over 2022-2023, trends changed: from a crisis to recovery from it. How has this manifested itself at the regional level in industry, construction, investment, employment, personal income and budgets? Natalya Zubarevich covered these topics in her lecture and answered the questions of the audience.

According to Zubarevich, so far the most hit by the present situation were the regions mining iron ore, coal, extracting gas and processing timber. The regions of central Russia, the Volga region and the Urals are doing best – due to state military orders, active industrial growth is observed there.

According to Natalya Zubarevich, household incomes fell only in six regions of Russia. The rest, in addition to social payments and indexation of pensions, demonstrate an increase in wages, although people do not really feel it. Unemployment, on the contrary, is inadequately low. In August 2023, it was 0.6 per cent, with the exception of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Tyva.

Among the behavioral features of Russians, Natalya Zubarevich noted the increased demand for public catering services, especially in regions close to the Northern Military District zone: the Southern Federal District, and separately in the Rostov region and Crimea. “Russians eat and drink through their emotions during these troubling times.”

The key economic problems, according to Zubarevich, are the shortage of labour force in the labour market and the risks of the federal budget due to the large increase in the defence spending. The expert does not expect a decline in incomes, at least until the 2024 elections.

The presentation by Natalia Zubarevich for the lecture can be downloaded here.