THE GREATER VLADIVOSTOK PROJECT - TRANSNATIONAL LINKAGES IN REGIONAL ECONOMIC-PLANNING

This article examines Moscow's bargaining with the Maritime province i n the framework of a two-level bargaining game in Northeast Asia. Diff erences between Beijing and Tokyo over the nature of Northeast Asian s ubregional economic development cooperation schemes found allies in Ru ssian domestic politics with Moscow aligning with Beijing and Vladivos tok aligning with Tokyo. These system-level differences fed into disag reements between Moscow and Vladivostok as they bargained domestically over budgetary allocation and tax remittances. These domestic-level d ifferences obstructed Moscow's bargaining with Beijing and Tokyo over bilateral issues. Moscow needed Primorye's compliance in these system- level issues, and to get that compliance, Moscow promised large side p ayments to Primorye, giving the province enhanced leverage with the ce nter. It is simultaneous bargaining at two levels that produced this o utcome. This study suggests that Russian center-local bargaining paral lels Chinese center-local bargaining in the enhanced leverage the loca lity derives from its transnational linkages.