Cooperation of the subjects of the Baikal region with Mongolia and China: motivation and social concerns of the local population

This paper examines the problems of interaction of the subjects of the Baikal region with Mongolia and China in a new geopolitical situation. The analysis is based on the results of a sociological survey carried out in 2015-2016 in Irkutsk Oblast, Republic of Buryatia and Zabaikalsky Krai (questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions). Social consequences of interaction, concerns and motivation of the local population in collaborating, addressing the social problems of the region have been analyzed. The author has come to a conclusion about positive prospects of further interaction. The paper exposes cooperation constraints, such as statutory and regulatory factors (shortcomings in the Russian border legislation, including the absence of a federal bill on borderland territories), infrastructural constraints (failure to meet international standards of transport, customs and border infrastructure, unpreparedness to host large numbers of tourists), strategic factors (domination of trade and economic direction of cooperation, emphasis of international trade on raw materials), and budgetary constraints (insufficient federal funding by the federal center of the internal development and addressing of social problems of the local population of the subjects of the Baikal region). It exposes concerns associated with negative consequences of cooperation, such as prospects of HPP construction on a tributary of the Selenga in Mongolia and development of tourism on the shore of Lake Baikal threatening the environmental state of the unique lake, long-term lease of lands to foreign citizens, failure to comply with the environmental norms in forestry and agriculture, increase of migration flows to the transboundary areas of the Baikal region. The author concludes that actions should be taken in order to increase the motivation of the local population in cooperation with the neighboring countries, such as the increasing the living standards in the region, creating preferential conditions for the development of entrepreneurship and business in the borderland regions, building up social sphere and infrastructure, equipping customs stations.

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