Digital monitoring of borderland connectivity of the exclave region

Abstract

The degree of permeability of the state border is one of the determining factors in utilizing the potential of the economic-geographic position of border regions. In different time periods the level of border barrier varies and is determined by a combination of national and local interests. This study examines the relationship between the nature of border functioning and the intensity of transport links in the border area as a basis for cross-border cooperation. The aim of the article is to assess the degree of changes in the integration of transport systems of border regions under the increasing influence of the barrier function of the border. The object of the research was the Kaliningrad region and its neighboring regions of Poland and Lithuania, the relations between which are in the stage of transformation from good-neighborly to conflict ones. The research methodology included the assessment of monthly statistics of movement through the Russian-Polish and Russian-Lithuanian dyads in 2022 in comparison with data on the number and geography of Internet users’ requests in the Kaliningrad region reflecting their intentions to move over the same period. The results obtained, on the one hand, showed a natural compression of the flow of cross-border mobility in conditions of deteriorating institutional conditions, and, on the other hand, the preserved transport connectivity of border regions even in conditions of prevailing barrier function of the border and positive reaction of their population to news about liberalization of border crossing regime, expressed in the growth of Internet requests.