Transformation of the Forest Complex during the Years of Russian Reforms: The Far Eastern Viewpoint

The article examines the changes in forest complex of Far East in 1990–2016 to determine the extent of their influence on the modern structure of the complex. The changes in institutional conditions in 1990s in the framework of general socio-economic reform resulted in the diversity of ownership types, changes of foreign trade rules and conditions of endowment of forest resource base. At the beginning of the 2000th the external factor, cutting off the national market, narrowing of the regional market, became stronger. The geography of forest export narrowed down and aimed at North-East Asia with China gradually dominating, which contributed to placing industries in the most developed parts of the south of Far East, close to external markets. The changes in the institutional conditions of the forest resource use, including, starting from 2007, forestry, timber industry and exports, limited the Far Eastern forest complex’s development as they led to breaking the stability of forest products market, destabilizing the conditions for business in the sphere. The forest exports policy led to decreasing the role of Russian exporters in the markets of North-East Asia. The crisis in the Far Eastern forest complex of 2010s caused the necessity of moving to “manual” management in the form of additional exemptions. The conclusion is drawn that despite the changes, the product and technology structure of the Far Eastern forest complex that shaped before reforms was a stable formation, invariant to institutional transformations that took place during the period in question