Modern domination of administrative centres and largest cities in the regions of the Russian Federation define centripetal tendencies of development of Russian regions. For example, about 30% of the population concentrate in regional capitals, from 40 to 70% administrative centres form the gross regional product, from 40 to 80% of all investment accounts for each RF subject, with the 10-30% growth of economic indicators over the period 2001-2007 outpaced the rest of the region separately. In terms of the level of actual unemployment in regional centres it is 30-40% lower than in the rest of the region. The prevailing trends in the concentration of resources and factors of development in central locations contribute to "washing out" the latest from the peripheral areas (in the first place, human resources and capital). These processes cause multifaceted problems associated with the operation and development of the least of large and small settlements in Russia. As these trends only reinforce depressive processes in local socioeconomic systems in the region and contribute to the organization of the enclave-type economic space within them. The need to reduce the negative effects associated with existing differences in the territories today is one of the most pressing issues. Many domestic and foreign scientists investigated various aspects of spatial development of local territories. Founders of the theory of spatial development of the territory are the representatives of the "German school": A. Weber, W. Launhardt, A. Lesch, W. Christaller, T. Palander, I. Tunen, etc. E.B. Alaev, M.K. Bandman, A.G. Granberg, V.G. Ignatov, N.N. Kolosovsky, V.N. Lexin, B.Z. Milner, N. Nekrasov, A. Novoselov, R. Popov, A.I. Tatarkin, AN Shvetsov, R.I. Shniper, I.J. Shulgin write about theoretical and practical positions of the spatial organization of economy. Theoretical aspects of formation and development of local socio-economic systems, poles, dots, centres, are reflected in the writings of L. Abalkin, T.T. Avdeeva, V. Alonso, J. Budvilya, F. Perroux, K. Pavlov, M. Pavlov, M. Porter, V. Filippov, J. Fridmana, D. Jacobs, L. Yang and others. The purpose of the paper is the research of theoretical approaches to the analysis of functioning and development of local territories. To achieve this goal the author solves the following tasks: - To carry out the analysis of the basic approaches connected with the influence of central places on peripheral territories in the development of a region; - To prove the necessity of formation of local zones of development with nonagglomerative location and functioning. The object of research is organizational and economic relations between the settlements in the formation of zones of the region. The object of the study is local socio-economic systems, related to nonagglomerative type of settlement, functioning in modern conditions in Russian regions. The subject of research is the organizational and economic relations between the settlements in the formation of zones of the region. In general, the author tried to emphasize that, first, some approaches to spatial development are not fully able to reveal the existing laws and phenomena that are associated with the functioning and development of small local territories, and, secondly, the possibility of development of depressive territories should not be considered with the rigid positions of the centre-periphery, but from the standpoint of the integration possibilities of human settlements in their operations, which are able to form zones of development of a region.
