Potentially, the participation of small and medium-sized businesses in cross-border cooperation in the border regions of the country should intensify its development, bring specificity to it. However, the analysis showed that there is no noticeable specificity in the dynamics of employment in the field of small and medium-sized businesses in non-priority geostrategic border areas in comparison with other regions of Russia, incl. the crisis year 2020. As in the country as a whole, the development of small and medium-sized businesses in these border areas is difficult, unstable, multidirectional, moreover, in line with the longterm tendency towards its curtailment. Against the background of a generally unfavorable economic, including entrepreneurial, climate, the specifics of the functioning of small and medium-sized businesses in the border areas are hardly distinguishable. This lack of distinction confirms the low estimates of the degree of openness of the Russian economy, the fact that a significant part of the border regions are depressed. With a low level of openness, the potential opportunities from cross-border and other economic cooperation with foreign countries in such Russian territories are poorly realized and play a secondary role. Nonpriority border regions to a greater extent perform “barrier functions” due to geostrategic reasons, rather than the functions of economic growth points.
Migration policy as a factor in ensuring social security: expert opinions in cross-border regions of Russia