MOSCOW, September 7. /TASS/. Both the Far East and the Arctic Region not only have key resources, but also access to rapidly developing regions of the globe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).
"As far as we are concerned, the Far East and the Arctic are definitely the most important regions for Russia’s future. Not only do they have resources there, but it also offers access to areas of the world proactively developing and at a very good pace. We actually started building up the Far East not due to any sort of special military operation in Donbass, this was done long before that. It is a strategic choice based on the global economy’s development trends, and, accordingly, the emergence of new centers of power in the world," the president said. According to Putin, you have to "keep up with the trends" and work to develop contacts with other regions of the world.
Another important objective is to prevent depopulation and do the best for the Far East to be attractive for the nation’s citizens. "We are witnessing a migration influx into the Far East for the first time in modern history. It took place for the first time in 2021. A natural population decline does exist, but it is lower than the country's average. This is the main aggregator of what is being done and, in all appearances, things are fundamentally going in the right direction. We still have plenty of things to do and many things have not yet been done, but we will definitely make progress along this path," Putin vowed.