Cross-Border Cooperation in the Light of Investment Processes

The article examines the effect of proximity to the border on investment processes in Russia, using methods of multidimensional cluster analysis. Border regions in the eastern part of the Russian Federation were in the bottom two clusters in regard to per capita investments in fixed capital from all sources. The same can be said of foreign investments: here the effect of proximity to the border did not change the trend in the overall lag of these regions behind the average Russian level. Institutional barriers so strongly hinder the regional development that even the advantages of being near the border and the presence of rich reserves of natural resources do not help.