“A New Type District”: Regional Transformation and Dynamics of Ethno-Political Processes in the North Caucasus

Abstract

The role of the North Caucasus Federal District (NCFD) in stabilizing the situation and consequent regional transformations in the South of Russia are analyzed in the article. The formation of the NCFD in 2010 significantly changed the spatial configuration of the South of Russia. The NCFD was conceived as a “new type of district”, and the goal was to change the situation in the North Caucasus by means of deep economic reconstruction. Over the past decade, the situation in the North Caucasus has stabilized, the manifestations of terrorism and extremism have become much less numerous. Ethno-political tension decreased, and there is no reason to continue to identify the situation in the region as a protracted ethno-political crisis. The main role in stabilizing the ethno-political processes was played by the “siloviki”, while economic changes had a much smaller effect. Regional transformations in the South continued at the end of second decade of the 21st century. The formation of the North Caucasian macroregion in the context of the “Strategy for Spatial Development of the Russian Federation for the Period until 2025” adopted in 2019, fixed a new spatial image of the North Caucasus and preserved the sociocultural demarcation between modernization and traditionalism. Broad economic and humanitarian cooperation within the boundaries of two federal districts and two macro-regions – the Southern and the North Caucasian – and the formation of a common economic and humanitarian space of the "Greater South" would contribute to the solution of these problems.