Russia, being the largest country in the world in terms of territory, attaches great importance to the effective use of its vast space. The paper considers findings of a monitoring of the current situation and key trends regarding spatial development of the Northwestern Federal District and the RF constituent entities included in it. Spatial development of the macro region is studied from the position of center-peripheral and frame approaches; spatial organization is considered taking into account the transformation of the settlement, production, economic and infrastructural frames. The conclusion is made about the increasing nature of the centripetal vector of development and peripherization at the macro and intraregional levels (this is especially acute in the regions of the North). In addition, the paper presents current estimates (2020–2023) of the ranks of Northwestern regions among RF constituent entities on key indicators of spatial development, which can be used by federal and regional authorities as part of monitoring and revising their policies. We prove that an important task is to create conditions conducive to the development of the spatial frame of the macro region by unlocking the potential of various kinds of localities (cities and agglomerations of various levels of hierarchy, rural, industrial periphery). We substantiate a set of measures to increase the connectivity of the macro region’s space, which are in line with the priorities of the new Concept and draft Strategy for Spatial Development of the Russian Federation until 2036
Keywords
spatial frame, agglomeration processes, locational compression, strategic priorities, connectivity of space, Northwest of Russia