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in the surroundings of Kirovsk and therefore increases the prospects for economic diversification in
the town. In turn, in Revda the local mindset is more mining-oriented. Moreover, Revda, as the
more remote community, also suffers from a lack of transport connections, such as an airport.
Nevertheless, in the Arctic context both the location of Kirovsk and Revda provides them with a
relatively good accessibility from the viewpoint of departure areas of potential domestic (Central
Russia) and foreign tourists (Europe) as there are various transport connections. Moreover, the
tourism in the Murmansk region has potential to benefit from cross-border programs. The tourism
information center of Kirovsk was opened as a result of LapKola II project, which promoted crossborder tourism business in Lapland and Southern Murmansk Region (Popova 2012, personal
communication, June 9, 2012). Nevertheless, the economic diversification of Kirovsk and Revda is
dependent on several external factors, such as continuous repositioning of Russia in a global context
and its consequences at the local level. On the one hand, the escalation of political tensions in 2014
with worsening relations and sanction policies between Russia and Western countries will have
unpredictable consequences on Russian resource communities and their industries. The worsening
image of Russia in 2014 and the decreasing interest of foreign investors to invest in Russia have
jeopardized the modernization of a Russian economy that requires foreign investments and foreign
know-how. Consequently, a lack of investment in modernization strengthens the resource-based
path of development in Russia, and postpones economic diversification as extractive industries do
not need the same international openness (Humphreys et al. 2007: 4) that a more diversified
economy would need. Moreover, negotiations related to a visa-free regime between Russia and the
EU have been postponed and the image of Russia as a tourism destination has deteriorated, which at
least postpones the possibilities for centres such as Revda and Kirovsk to develop plans to attract
foreign tourists. On the other hand, there is still a long-term development tendency towards Russia’s
integration to world markets, which is represented by Russia’s WTO agreement. Nevertheless, the
external factors of development will likely have a significant impact on the potential for economic
diversification in resource communities in border areas.
Table 1 shows the general characteristics of Kirovsk and Revda as mining towns, the importance of
their mining industries as employers and the general characteristics and strategic goals of their CIPs,
which promote investment projects to further economic diversification. The planned projects in
CIPs aim to activate different stakeholders. Their target was to develop public-private partnerships
for development of investments projects,