Found at: http://www.competitiveness.org/article/articleprint/75/-1/9/
Over the course of the last year, the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) has been investigating the potential development of economic clusters in Northwest Russia. ETLA has identified Northwest Russia as "a growth engine" and is looking to establish more formal over-the-border cooperation between Finland and Russia.
Working in conjunction with the Center for Strategic Research (CSR) in Moscow and Solid Invest, a research/consulting company in St. Petersburg, ETLA plans to use their research as a foundation for Russia's future industrial strategy. Northwest Russia is the major manufacturing region of Russia and has rich natural resources and an inexpensive, well-trained and educated work force making it an attractive region to complement Finland's economy. Forestry, base metals, energy, food and ICT have been chosen by ETLA as sectors of the economy to evaluate using a cluster method and ETLA is currently publishing their results: http://www.etla.fi/
The Bank of Finland, and other institutions within the region, have taken notice of this region's potential, see http://www.bof.fi/bofit/fin/4ruec/pdf/o1002.pdf.
There are many institutions monitoring the specific cluster activity in the region, including Russian Competitiveness (http://www.competitiveness.ru/cgi-bin/g2.cgi?foodcluster) which reviews the region's food cluster. The industry clusters within Northwest Russia are attracting attention and are proving to be a growth engine during a time of limited global growth. This region just may prove to be a diamond in the rough.