| Summary/Abstract |
ONCE THE USSR COLLAPSED, the Russian Federation and other former Soviet states had to adapt to the processes of globalization and harsh competition in the international arena. On the one hand, this opened up fresh development opportunities; on the other hand, this inevitably presented fresh challenges and exposed the weaknesses and maladies of the yet immature sociopolitical and economic systems. The previous single economic structure, which made it possible to smooth over the uneven distribution of resources and use them for a harmonious development of all territories of the former Soviet Union, was disrupted in order to indulge the political interests while disregarding the economic links that had taken decades to form. It is this factor coupled with demographic problems that was behind the swelling streams of migrants in the former Soviet Union.
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