Northwest Russian Fisheries After the Disintegration of the USSR: Market Structure and Spatial Impacts

Abstract

After the early 1990s the position of the Northwest Russian fisheries in the global system of fisheries changed completely. Although the Soviet Union had established a Northern fisheries system based on global harvesting and deliveries to Russian regional "markets," the new Northwest Russian system is based on catches in regional waters and access to global fish markets. In the same period, Northern fisheries units that formerly functioned as power centers of the Soviet fisheries system almost disappeared and were replaced by organisations embedded at the federal level. Here we analyze the shaping of the new spatial system of Russian fisheries, and its linkages with the introduction of market mechanisms after 1990. The most dramatic change occurred in 2000, when a state‐driven market experiment in form of quota auctions was introduced.