Abstract The spatial disparity of regional economic development is the outcome of imbalance of economic development between regions. As the largest country in the world, Russia incorporates a wide range of environments and social and economic development levels. Disparity of regional economic development had long been an obstacle to Russia's unification and stability. From regional geographic perspective, the article makes comprehensive analysis of the current spatial disparity of the regional economic development of Russia's economic zones, basic economic districts, federal districts and federal subjects in its transformation period. The article thus summarizes that the disparity of Russia's regional economic development has three significant features:Firstly, the economic development disparity between regions is getting bigger in both definite and relative terms, no matter the overall economy is growing or declining; Secondly, the spatial disparity of economic development between regions reflects the effect of market economy in different districts-the economic growth is faster in districts that has better market infrastructure or is better at resource export-oriented economy than other districts; Thirdly, there emerged many "subsidence areas",whose economic indexes are substantially lower than the Russian average. Then the article goes further to explore the effect of different factors on spatial economic development, like nature environment, industrial structure, institutional infrastructure, the "reverse stream" phenomenon in economic transformation period, local policy, etc. Based on the analysis above, the author draws the conclusion that Russia should combine state intervention with market mechanism to stop the enlarging of regional disparity, and there's a long way to go.
2013, Vol. 28 
