Humanities & Social Sciences 11 (2016 9) 2565-2574 ~ ~ ~ УДК 327 Pivot to Asia: Key Role of Siberia Timofei V. Bordachev and Anastasiia V. Kazakova* National Research University Higher School of Economics 20 Myasnitskaya Str., Moscow, 101000, Russia Received 23.06.2016, received in revised form 20.09.2016, accepted 18.10.2016 Since the announcement of the pivot to Asia, enough time has passed to sum up the results and to evaluate the existing achievements and failures of Russia’s new policy. <...> Most of the government’s attempts in this area have not led to any fundamental changes, as the measures taken are often unsystematic and inconsistent. <...> Therefore, further development of the region requires some more dynamic actions and larger strategy, where the central place belongs to Russian Far East and Siberia. <...> Thus, our task is to determine the content of the «pivot to Asia» policy, its possible directions and the main format. <...> Background information Since the Russian political authorities announced the external and internal political pivot to the East, enough time has passed to sum up the results and to evaluate the existing achievements and failures. <...> The idea itself still remains one of the most disputed topics in Russian intellectual society: there have been multiple researches (Bordachev, Barabanov, 2012; Karaganov, Makarov, 2016) of the state opportunities and potential threats. <...> The new policy announced by the President was inspired by APEC summit of Russia1 in Vladivostok (2012), where Russia expressed a © Siberian Federal University. <...> All rights reserved serious intention to take a more active part in the development of Asian Pacifi c Region, involving its territories of Siberia and the Far East. <...> The changes emerged simultaneously in two policy lines, international and domestic. <...> A little later, Russia and China also * Corresponding author E-mail address: tbordachev@hse.ru; akazakova@hse.ru # 2565 # Timofei V. Bordachev, Anastasiia V. Kazakova. <...> Pivot to Asia: Key Role of Siberia announced their readiness to “align with” the EEU and Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), which includes execution of multiple infrastructure and investment projects in the Central Eurasia. <...> Later, in its annual Address to the Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin articulated the concept of priority development areas (PDA <...>