Determinants of accelerating digitalization processes in the context of ensuring the economic security of the region

Russia's lag behind world leaders in the field of digitalization increases attention to accelerating the relevant processes in the context of ensuring economic security. The purpose of the study is to establish the determinants that determine the importance of accelerating digitalization processes to ensure the economic security of the region. The study uses methods of systemic, comparative, functional, statistical and cause-and-effect analysis. All of them are designed to identify factors that actualize the increase in the pace of digitalization in order to ensure the economic security of the region. A content analysis of individual development programs of the Federal subjects of Russia was also carried out regarding the use of digital technologies as a tool for the development of depressed regions of the country, which allowed to draw a number of conclusions. Firstly, it has been determined that Russia lags behind the developed countries of the world in terms of the pace of digitalization of the economy and the contribution of digital technologies to GDP, while maintaining generally positive internal dynamics of the corresponding digital development processes against the background of their structural shortcomings. It is substantiated that, despite significant successes, the digitalization of Russia is catching up, while the digital gap between the regions of the country determines a much more serious lag behind the leading world standards of outsider regions. It is concluded that ensuring the economic security of Russia directly depends on the quantitative and qualitative parameters of the digital transformation of regions at a level corresponding to the developed countries of the world. Secondly, digital tools are identified as an effective tool for the development of regional economies. Based on a content analysis of individual development programs for lagging Federal subjects of Russia and statistical analysis of data, it was revealed that only half of depressed regions contain single sector-specific activities in the field of digitalization, with most of them clearly lagging behind the leaders of national digital development. Strategies for using digital technologies to bring depressed regions onto a path of sustainable development and the threats to economic security that accompany this process are systematized. Thirdly, the need for personnel to fill vacant jobs was diagnosed to be high nationwide and very different regionally. Models for solving the problem of labor shortage are substantiated: extensive, intensive and mixed. The use of a mixed, predominantly extensive model is determined to be unjustified due to the accompanying set of threats to economic security and the ineffectiveness of the model in the long term. The mixed, predominantly intensive model is recognized as economically feasible, but currently its technical and technological component is experiencing implementation limitations due to the catching-up nature of the digitalization of the Russian Federation and sanctions pressure on the supply of high-tech products from unfriendly states. It is proposed to set up the migration component of this model on the basis of scientifically based forecasting of demand for migrant labor and selective selection when attracting specialists from abroad. Further research will be aimed at clarifying the trends in digital transformation that influence the management of the economic security of the region.