Going global: The political economy of oil and gas development offshore of sakhalin.

The transitional recession and now economic crisis in the Russian Far East have left the island of Sakhalin Oblast with little alternative but to hope that the international oil and gas companies will invest in offshore oil and gas projects. The historical background to these projects commences with the exploration of offshore acreage dating back to the aftermath of the energy crises in the mid‐1970s and their current state of development is faced with many complications, but these projects could have a tremendous impact on the regional economy, providing benefits to be felt far beyond the shores of Sakhalin ‐ in the entire Russian Far East. In defining the key actors, scales of interaction and issues influencing the pace of development, we might conceptualise the nature of the various interactions as operating along two axes: the global‐local, which captures the interaction between Sakhalin and the Russian Far East more generally, and the international political and economic actors; and the centre‐region, which captures the interaction between Sakhalin/the Russian Far East and Moscow ‐ both the Federal Government, the State Duma and private financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]