The North – South Transport Corridor in a new reality

The International North – South multimodal Transport Corridor (INSTC) ensures the delivery of goods from Russia to Asian and African countries without entering the ports of hostile states. The importance of this corridor is significantly increasing in the context of the unprecedented sanctions war of the West against Russia and attempts to use methods of a transport blockade. The North – South Corridor includes four types of transport links: by rail, road, water and pipeline. The article considers the technical and economic characteristics of the water and railway type of cargo transportation. The author analyzes the potential of Russian ports on the Caspian Sea (in Astrakhan, in Makhachkala and the port of Olya), as well as data on Iranian port facilities. The article considers the problems of two variants of railway communication functioning: Western (through the territory of Azerbaijan and Iran) and Eastern (through Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran). The author, relying on the research of scientists of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, draws attention to the environmental vulnerability of the Caspian region, which must be taken into account when increasing the intensity of the use of sea routes of the North–South corridor. In the current extreme conditions, analysis should be focused on helping to achieve specific results, therefore, the author draws attention to a number of political issues in the article. Nowadays the exceptional influence of politics on the economy makes scientists aware of the possibility that opponents may disrupt the functioning of the International North–South multimodal Transport Corridor.

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