The Far East as a point of reassembly: why business should look beyond St Petersburg

I’m heading to a real estate forum in St Petersburg — a place where people usually talk about square meters, investments, and liquidity. But this time the conversation is broader. After the President’s remarks about the Far East development program, it became clear: the east of the country is once again becoming not a periphery, but a space of the future.

And this isn’t only about the economy. It’s about an inner turn. About the ability of a person and a business not to get stuck in the familiar geography of thinking.

I, Lyudmila Lykova, feel this especially sharply. In Kamchatka I’ve been running my programs for CEOs for several years now, and each such trip confirms: the Far East changes not only the route, but also your optics.

There it’s impossible to remain in a superficial mode. Wind, volcanoes, the ocean, distances — all of it seems to compel a person to hear themselves more honestly.

And this feeling became even more distinct after my ascent of Avachinsky volcano. The climb wasn’t about an athletic result. It was about a conversation with yourself at the limit. When you’re going up, and the air gets thinner, and your body asks you to stop, but you have to move forward — you’re on a team.

And it’s right there, at the top, that you understand: in life, too, there are heights you can’t reach in one go, on the strength of habit alone. You need discipline, patience, and respect for the path.

One participant in our expedition once told me after Kamchatka: — «I thought I was going for the views, for the impressions. But it turned out — for a new point where I could reassemble myself».

Exactly. The Far East doesn’t entertain — it puts you back together.

Next year, my plans include Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. And these are not just beautiful destinations on the map. It’s a continuation of a big theme: how to teach yourself and your children to live not in a mode of short-term gain, but in a mode of a long view. How to cultivate in yourself a taste for, trust in, and respect for vast space — in business, in family, in decision-making.

Today I was at the Dobrograd golf club, and there this thought suddenly landed especially precisely. Golf, after all, isn’t about a flashy shot. It’s about strategy, about distance, about whether you can see the trajectory all the way to the end.

In business, that’s called experience and maturity. In life — inner support.

And there’s one more important layer that I always value especially in my trips: the taste of a place. In Kamchatka it’s real — berries, grass, air, black magnetic sand, a briny sea note, blueberries and lingonberries that literally wake up the body’s memory.

It’s no coincidence that stories about simple отдых in nature resonate so strongly with people, where there’s a tent, water, silence, and blueberries straight from the bush.

In moments like these it becomes especially clear: what hooks us isn’t the scenery, but the feeling of a living, real life. There, where there’s nothing extra, the taste becomes brighter, and the meaning — clearer.

And probably that is exactly why the Far East today is so important not only to the state, but to everyone who builds their life consciously.

It’s about the fact that the future belongs to those who know how to expand the map — the outer one and the inner one. Who aren’t afraid of distant horizons. Who are ready not just to travel, but to change.

Because sometimes the most important route is not a route across the country, but the route inside yourself.