OUTLYING AREAS OF RUSSIA: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS 55 February (the coldest month) is -6-7°C and the minimum is -25°C. The mean temperature of the warmest month (August) is +10°C in the north and near +17°C in the south with the maximum of +31°C. Precipitation ranges from 600mm in the north to 1000mm in the south. The permanent population is only on four large islands including Paramushir, Iturup, Kunsahir, and Shikotan and consists of about 18 thousand people. The islands are divided into three administrative rayons (sections) within Sakhalinskaya Oblast. The analysis of the economic history of islands, which are country outlying areas or, in some cases, independent states and can present more or less geographic analogues of the Kuril Islands (Iceland, Faroe Islands, Aleutian Islands, Hokkaido Island, Hawaii Islands, and Aland Islands), shows that the fundamental factors to determine the progress are as follow: - Geographic location of the region, in particular in the context of business, transport, and military activities; - Natural conditions and resources of land area and adjacent sea areas; - State of administration and self-governing, regional political and administrative status; - Geoeconomic conditions and economic policy at various stages of development, way of economic life; - Demographic conditions and policy, manpower, human factor. Each group of the factors had specific influence at different stages of development and different economic conditions, and the last three groups were realised through systems of decisions, measures, and actions, the most important of which had and still have similar (invariant) features for various island regions. It allows putting some ideas that should be used in policy, strategy, instruments, and actions to provide sustainable socio-economic development of the Kuril Islands. Administration and regional political and administrative status. An important condition for developing of the islands is to establish an integrated administratively and economically governed territory with the status fixed by legislative and treaty relations with regional (of higher regional level) and federal authorities. Integrated administration system (region administration) should also be organised and regional-economic privileges should be provided. It can be preferential (compared with acting in the country) terms for investment, business, and foreign economic activity, custom regime, special amortisation policy, conditions of entry and stay of foreigners, etc.