The article explores the process of “nationalisation of the Russian elite”. “Nationalization of the elite” is presented as a reorientation of assets, business practices, the production of meanings of the political and economic elite into the contour of the Russian fields of interaction. The author characterised the Russian political system as a “state of limited access”, where actors of the political and economic field compete for rent distribution. The turn from the legitimate offshore practices of the pre-sanctions period to the mobilisation version of the formation of elite consensus in the context of “new normality” is analysed. The author considered political protests of 2012 and sanctions against Russia in 2014–2019 as factors of the “nationalisation of the elite”. The author proved that the interests of the state-apparatus and the state-nation in the issue of “nationalisation of the elite” have points of contact. An analysis of the assets of the Russian business elite in comparison with the business elites of other countries shows their privatisation and rental nature. The amount of assets held outside the Russian jurisdiction indicates a lack of trust in the business elite towards the stability of the “rules of the game” in Russia. These factors legitimise the process of “nationalisation” in public space. Within the framework of the concept of the bundle of property rights by A. Honore and the concept of communication codes, the theoretical aspects of the nationalisation of the business elite and the political elite are analysed. Finally, the author points to the problem of the possibility of “nationalisation of the nation” as a continuation of the mobilisation scenario.

The relevance of this topic is due to the forthcoming of the open stage of transit of the Russian political system, which will inevitably be accompanied by a change of generations of the political elite. It raises the question of what “exit strategy” exists for the existing elite, which is now at the levers of governmental management. It will have a decisive influence on the course and outcome of the transit of the political system. The purpose of this article is to analyse the implementation of the government’s strategy for the nationalisation of the elite, which is carried out in the 2010s, to assess its progress, limitations and problems it faced. The article deals with the Russian experience of nationalisation of the elite of the last seven years, both in terms of changes in legislation and, most importantly, law enforcement and political practice. The author placed particular emphasis on the existing limitations of this project — lack of “exit strategy” of the current elite and lack of a large project that could mobilise the elite. The author concludes that the events of 2014 and the ensuing confrontation with the West have done much more to nationalise the elite than the purposeful efforts of the authorities for two years before. However, the political practice has not yet answered the key question — what will be the second stage of nationalisation of the elite, which will be completed by 2022–2024.

The article presents the data of the study of the dynamics of socio-political sentiments and analysis of the results of the elections of the Head of the Republic of Khakassia and the Supreme Council of the Republic of Khakassia in 2018. The paper attempts to determine the factors and processes of formation of protest socio-political sentiments in the Republic of Khakassia in 2018 and the degree of their influence on the vote for the head of the Republic and members of Parliament. The authors revealed the main reasons for the defeat of the last head of the Republic V. Zimin and the reasons for the victory of the new head of the Republic V. Konovalov. The main trends of socio-political attitudes in the changing political reality based on Federal, regional and municipal factors are determined. In the course of the study, we took individual in-depth interviews with 20 experts (deputies of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Khakassia, party leaders of United Russia, entrepreneurs, municipal deputies, political scientists, journalists, opposition figures, representatives of public organizations). Also, we conducted six group in-depth interviews (students, public activists, entrepreneurs, economically active population, state employees were participants of the focus groups, pensioners) and conducted a survey of public opinion on the methodology of standardized program telephone interview with a sample of 1200 respondents with representation by sex and age.

The article attempts to analyse the role of the religious factor in the formation and implementation of Politics of memory in modern Russia and Belarus. The urgency of work is caused by the increasing role of the religious factor in the politics of memory of the two States in the first decade of XXI century the research Objective — identify and similarities in the manifestations of the religious factor in the politics of memory of Russia and Belarus. For this purpose, we identified the subjects and mechanisms of interaction of state and religious institutions in the formation and implementation of memory policy. We showed that in Russia, religious organisations have a greater subjectivity in the politics of memory and can form a complementary discourse of memory and expand it at the expense of their system of interpretation of the past. As concerns the religious factor of the processes of political socialisation in the context of the policy of memory we revealed in the interaction of religious organisations of the two countries with the systems of public education and the armed forces. We concluded the similarity of the strategies of this interaction in Russia and Belarus. We showed that in both states, the selective interaction with religious organisations is carried out according to the criterion of their tradition. We also concluded that religious organisations do not form adversarial, but complementary channels of socialisation in the implementation of the state policy of memory. The process of creating a symbolic space and the possibility of participation of religious organisations, especially the Russian Orthodox Church, which is a key actor here, is also analysed. We also studied the religious factor of memory policy in the context of integration of Russia and Belarus. We concluded that the attempts to use it building the value basis of integration on the concepts of the collective historical past have not yet been successful, but such an opportunity remains.

The article focuses on communist symbols bans in post-communist countries. The author highlights the influence of various conditions such as existence as a part of USSR or Russian empire, the experience of independent state-building in XX century, membership in European Union, lack of dominant political actor and resources for his long domination, the popularity of successor parties, the radicalism of institutional reforms. The analysis also accounts associated impacts of international environment and relations of post-communist countries with Russia. Based on a combination of various conditions, the author develops a typology of post-communist states where communist symbols have been banned.

The article analyses the current realities of consumer behaviour, the reasons that prompted the population to change the vector of their consumer strategies, global and Russian trends in consumption. The economic and political upheavals of recent years, consisting in the food embargo, the devaluation of the ruble, the decline in buyers’ incomes have led retailers and their suppliers to understand and respond quickly to the transformation of the needs of the population, its resource capabilities and motivations for buying. The development of digital technologies, online market, the emergence of innovative instruments of the transaction entails the formation of new trends in consumption that require constant evaluation and monitoring. Data on customer behaviour in combination with demographic trends, indicate a steady shift, which leads to the fact that purchases will be more deliberate and targeted. Demonstrative consumption will give way to a more practical one. A free search of the transaction will be replaced by higher selectivity of purchases and the use of equipment and tools that have emerged during the crisis.

In the article, the author substantiates the thesis that the development of artificial intelligence technology is closely related not only to discoveries in the field of natural science, anthropology and medicine, but also achievements in the field of philosophy of knowledge and cognitive sciences. The author conducted a philosophico-epistemological analysis of the problems of improving the neural network as the core of modern artificial intelligence led to the conclusion that the principles of functioning of the neural network corresponding to such principles of the cognitive process discovered and studied in the philosophical concepts of New Time, such as J. Locke’s apriorism, I. Kant’s apriorism other. The results of the comparative study allowed the author to come to the following conclusion: the improvement of the abilities of the neural network studied by S. Haikin, S. Russell, P. Norvig (“evidence of the answer”, “classification of images” and “reliability of the decision”) is possible when relying on the epistemological ideas of J. Locke, using Kant’s principles (“synthetic unity of apperception”, “I think”) and searching for the algorithm of neural network formation of the ability to create antinomies in artificial intelligence. Further development of artificial intelligence based on the neural network can also be based on the theory of cognition of T. Hobbes, R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, G. V. F. Hegel and the results of modern cognitive sciences.

In the context of rising social inequalities and worsening problems associated with the need to establish a cross-cultural dialogue between representatives of different civilisations, of particular urgency is a new understanding of the socio-political phenomenon of fascism. In the political sense of the word fascism as an expression of the right socio-political orientation remains relevant and should be comprehensively investigated, especially in conditions when the radicalization of the society’s structures has serious grounds — the growth of social inequality; unemployment; the deterioration of the criminal situation; a significant influx of immigrantsrepresentatives of a different cultural environment; the activation of political and social groups willing to use radical rhetoric to achieve their own goals and come to power. The radicalization of the political environment in Ukraine and other countries, the racial problems in the United States caused by the unprecedented influx of immigrants, the growth of ultra-right sentiments in Western Europe, the challenge posed to the world by the Islamic State (prohibited organization in Russia) — all these facts suggest that fascism as a radical ideological direction and political practice does not lose its relevance, and under certain circumstances may well become a political practice again. The author attempts to systematise approaches to understanding the concept of fascism, represent a summary of different aspects of the fascism phenomenon.

The article provides a review of studies assessing the effects of digital communication technologies on the political participation of citizens. Political participation is understood as civic engagement. The author considers the changes in the forms of political participation of citizens in the transition of digital communications from unidirectional information technologies Web 1.0 to interactive technologies Web 2.0 used in social media. Evaluation of the impact of digital communications on public activity is shown from various well-founded positions of ‘cyber-pessimists’ and ‘cyberoptimists’. Pessimists note the negative effects of the increased use of digital communications, which consist of social disunity, the erosion of social capital and, as a result, in a decrease in civil and political activity. In turn, optimists argue that the intensive use of digital communications has opened up opportunities for access to the necessary information and the creation of new forms of political participation, significantly reducing the cost (time, effort) of mobilising supporters and coordinating action. Moreover, digital media has created conditions for the implementation of creative and non-political formats of participation, which are often transformed into political actions. Based on the metadata, the author concluded it is necessary to strengthen and diversity of the effects of digital communication on civic and political participation.

The article is devoted to destructive and extremist aspects of the ideology of ecologism (environmentalism), as well as the activities of modern environmental organisations in Russia and abroad, especially in the developed countries of the world, where the “green” theme is the most relevant. Particular attention the author paid to the topic of engagement and subjective component of the political activity of environmentalists, their involvement in projects of political and economic competition. Also explores the various manifestations of the negative activities of “green”: from political and ideological manipulation to the terror. Also, the article raises the question of prevention and ways to combat radical environmentalism.

The growing number of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe, which occurred after the onset of the Arab spring and the military strengthening of the Taliban in Afghanistan, has become a severe challenge for the European Union. The migration crisis has forced the EU to step up negotiations with Turkey, a country that has become a transit point for migrants on their way to Europe. It seems evident both parties are not interested in the increase in the number of terrorist acts, the increase in the level of street crime and the appearance of separate enclaves in the territory of the countries participating in the negotiations. However, Turkey and the EU could not reach a final agreement that could completely secure the “European” border from the uncontrolled flow of refugees. Despite the decrease in the number of refugees in 2018, the danger for the European Union remains: the desire of the Kurds to create an independent state can be stopped by military force, and the re-entry of the Taliban to power is quite real. A legitimate question arises: why has Turkey, which has been a member of NATO since 1952, actively pursued the westernisation of its society since Mustafa Kemal and signed the association agreement in 1963, which is unfriendly towards the EU? The article discusses the history of relations between Turkey and the European Union, analyses the role of the EU member states in forming a common position about Turkey’s potential membership in the organisation. The author paid particular attention to changing the foreign policy situation as a factor that influenced the priorities of the parties.

The article using “A Just Russia” case deals with the party strategies of the Russian left political forces for the creation of the relations with party structures of the European Union. Similar party strategy is at the same time a part of domestic policy and development of the Russian political processes, and at the same time, they are a part of the relationship with the European Union which is built up by Russia. Consequently, that is de facto a part of foreign policy activity. The novelty of the research consists in a combination of the research approaches used in a “partology” while considering a party to be a rational actor acting in conditions of a country political environment and the research approaches accepted in modern European studies. Parties act as internal political players, but at the same time and as contractors of foreign elite, in this case — party elite of the European Union, members of party groups of European Parliament, party Internationals, “the European parties” (earlier known under the term of “party at the European level”). From the Russian parliamentary political forces of several last electoral cycles “A Just Russia”, using a discourse of modern socialism, could establish more actively than others cooperation with European left, including influencing adoption of significant decisions in the EU, for example, on reform of the EU Gas Directive and the Third Energy Package of the EU. The party, through the prism of socialist ideology, is trying to bring together certain positions of the party elites of the Russian Federation and the EU, bringing differences on social avant-garde and identity politics out of the brackets. Therefore, it focuses recently on the problems of sanctions issues, considering its communication with the Party of European socialists and socialist groups in the European Parliament as another potentially popular diplomatic track for the country.

In this article, the author described features of Russian integration policy towards the Baltic States (1992–2009). I showed that in the first half of the 1990s, the mechanisms of Russian integration policy were bilateral and multilateral negotiations. From the mid to late 1990s, Russia declared the concept of multi-speed and multi-level integration. Under the influence of internal and external factors, Russia in this period is experiencing its decline in influence and the crisis of integration policy in the post-Soviet space. Since the beginning of the 2000s, Russian integration policy has been characterised by the priority of bilateral ties and economic pragmatism. The relations of Russia with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in this period are built on mutually beneficial bases, with many unresolved problems and sometimes a high degree of tension. In the second half of the first decade of the XXI century, under the influence of internal and external factors, Russia concentrates on internal modernisation and protection of its interests in the post-Soviet space in general and in the Baltic States region in particular.

The article is devoted to the military conflicts of the XXI century and the existing approaches to their understanding of the foreign and domestic scientific literature. The subject of research is the phenomenon and theory of “hybrid war”, which originated in the late 1990s — early 2000s, and are widely used in current conditions. The founders of the term, theoretical concept and military doctrinal foundations of “hybrid war” are American military experts. The article reveals the stages of formation of the theory of hybrid war, the existing militarytheoretical and political-ideological approaches to the characterisation of its essence. The author emphasised the unfounded nature of the accusations against the Russian Federation about the “annexation of Crimea”, the implementation of “hybrid aggression” in the South-East of Ukraine and other regions. Further, the author presented the analysis of real, not fictional signs of “hybrid war”. The author concluded that hybrid wars are a new instrument of aggression of the neo-Imperial Western powers against sovereign States as opposed to the hegemony of the United States in the crisis of the unipolar world order. The necessity of improving the system of national security of Russia taking into account the USA and NATO unleashing against our country “hybrid war” and its possible escalation is substantiated.

The article discusses the construction of the institution of financial literacy as a social game with a specific socio-conceptual system. We outlined the contours of the institution of financial literacy. The authors substantiated the thesis that the indicator of the effectiveness of such an institution is the coverage and quality (level) of involvement in the game of target groups in the status of players. We introduced a pyramid of levels (quality) of the involvement of target groups. We defend the thesis that institutions have the character of social games. Therefore, we have analysed the institutions as games, introducing the concept of “big games” in which the production and reproduction of elites are carried out. We also discuss the issues of the social construction of institutions as games, outlining the contours of the social game of “financial literacy” and identify the importance of the processes of legitimisation of games/ institutions. The stated theses urge to critically evaluate the implementation of the project named “Promotion of financial literacy of the population and the development of financial education in the Russian Federation”.

The financial and economic sphere is very rich in all sorts of social risks since money in modern realities is one of the essential benefits for healthy existence. In this regard, significant scientific and practical importance is the study of the process of management of social risks of consumer lending to students, as well as influencing factors. The study of these issues will help to assist in minimising the risks of consumer lending, as well as to develop a strategy for introducing changes in the process of informing and issuing loans to students. The article presents the results of the author’s empirical study of social risks of consumer lending to students. We considered the categories of risk experience and risk perception of consumer lending from students. According to the results of the study, we concluded that the riskiest types of consumer financing are loans for individual entrepreneurship and operating costs. We also found that it is necessary to make all possible efforts to protect young people from risky situations and develop a program to prepare children for adulthood, forming cultural values in the early stages of adulthood.

Some of the many existing activities of the state are characterised by their special social significance. These areas are associated with the implementation of the fundamental social functions of the state, as a result of which they require a special order of financing. Health care financing is a type of financial activity associated with the formation of centralised funds of financial resources, as well as their distribution and redistribution through specialised insurance funds and organisations, carried out within the framework of financial relations regulated by law and based on payments when an insured event occurs by a medical organisation. This article discusses the modern system of financing health care in terms of government policy. A detailed analysis is carried out, and the special status of the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund as an actor in this field is determined, the powers and activities of which are not limited to financial components. It emphasises the need to clarify the existing scientific ideas about the regulation of the modern system of financing health care as one of the mandatory state functions.

Le conflit de l’État russe avec le champ associatif s’explique par la participation des ONG aux délibérations politiques dans les années 1990. La logique du contrôle sur les acteurs qui peuvent susciter les sentiments contestataires chez ses partisans conduit l’État centrale à restreindre l’activité des ONG qui “font la politique” par la loi sur les “agents étrangers”. Alors, qu’est-ce que cela veut dire pour ces ONG de s’opposeraux autorités publiques et se construire en catégories politiques et civiques?

Over the past ten years, the creation of smart cities has become a priority in the development of the digital economy over the world. It is reflected not only in official documents of the leading international organisations including the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Commission but also in scientific research of many foreign scientists. There are several approaches to the definition of the term “smart city”. This article will overcome some theoretical gaps in a holistic research approach to the study of smart cities, especially in terms of the impact of information and telecommunication technologies on improving the quality of life and well-being of urban residents, because creating a comfortable living environment is one of the most essential tasks in the concept of a smart city. The author paid particular attention to the analysis of the literature on the problems of smart cities based on the international databases of scientific citing — Web of Science and Scopus; a resulting publication stream made it possible to assess the effectiveness of research in subject areas related to economics. The most significant number of projects to create smart cities were implemented in European cities. Researchers from the UK made a substantial contribution to the development of international standards. In Russian practice, this topic is just beginning its development, both in legal and regulatory documents and in economic research. An important step in solving this problem should be the implementation of the national program “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” and the project “Smart City” in the framework of the national project “Housing and Urban Environment” in 2019.

The purpose of this paper is driven by the author’s desire to contribute to the ongoing debate as to whether the internationalisation of Chinese Transnational corporations (TNCs) in foreign direct investment is due to conventional logic. The author selected 15 indirect variables from the data of the ‘Coordination and Resource Group’ (CRG) and the ‘International Heritage Foundation’ and applied the principal component analysis (PCA) method to develop a new Political Risk Index (PRI). It could assess the multiple dimensions of political risks for 139 countries. Using this index as a fundamental criterion, the author investigated the changes in Chinese Outward FDI in terms of directions and volumes of investments, annual investment flows and their distribution by sectors of the economy from 2006 to 2017. As a result of the study, the author found that the vast majority of Chinese Outward FDI during this period was concentrated in countries with medium and low levels of political risks.

On the threshold of the fourth technological revolution, it is necessary to draw attention to the many years of experience in managing state reserves for determining the main trends in the development of sovereign funds. It would allow revision of the mechanism of using their assets in Russia to ensure a contribution to achieving balanced growth of the domestic economy at rates exceeding the world average. Our work aims to identify and analyse the main features of the functioning of sovereign funds at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries. We paid particular attention to quantify the influence of a variety of economic factors on the functioning of sovereign funds. We used methods of correlation and regression analysis. The data obtained with its help made it possible to forecast the number of funds of the National Wealth Fund, the dynamics of which is an essential indicator in terms of stimulating the growth of the Russian economy. As a result of the research, we presented the description of the main trends in the development of sovereign funds, the main problems of the functioning of sovereign funds in Russia and the ways to solve them.

The practice of using two languages in teaching students, for whom at least one of them is not native, is a constant subject of teachers’ scientific discussions. The specificity of productive bilingualism in the educational environment, the need to understand, reproduce and produce foreign-language professionally oriented texts in two languages requires detailed consideration. The ratio of the two languages is another problem analysed by the authors. How the share of each language depends on the stage of training and the socio-cultural environment is the subject of research in this work. The authors consider cross-cultural differences in the initial educational training of students of the Preparatory faculty of the Financial University under the government of the Russian Federation and ways to improve their adaptation to the specificity of training in a Russian university. Particular attention is paid to the issues of language propaedeutics for mastering specialised terminology, in particular, the use of mathematical apparatus. As the authors imply, the functional and speech-dominant of students’ training is the Russian language for specific purposes, which becomes the language of a foreign student’s “survival” in the Financial University, providing him with the opportunity to study special subjects, passing tests and exams. If teaching is conducted in English, then in case of lexical difficulties, teachers of academic disciplines use Russian as a partner language, and such bilingual approach is justified, as it increases the efficiency of mastering disciplines. The article discusses the features of teaching international students mathematics through English as the language of international communication and Russian as the language of the host country. The authors analyse the program for teaching “Mathematics”, taking into account the fact that students have a different initial level of knowledge in mathematics and sometimes do not speak English or the language of the host country. The article presents a statistical analysis

The relevance of the brought-up subject consists that in this paper I considered work social marketing as a part of the global strategy of a brand, emphasised differences between social and commercial marketing, and described social advertising as the instrument of social marketing on the creation of a positive image of a brand. As the argument in favour of our statements, I attracted gave materials of research of the international network advertising agency McCann Erickson, and also gave real examples of socially responsible brands. The purpose of work is the identification of opportunities for social advertising for the formation of a positive image of a brand. My tasks consist of defining differences between social and commercial marketing, of reviewing examples of socially responsible brands, of analysing results of a research of the international advertising agency. The object in the article is social advertising as the instrument of social marketing. The practical importance of work is that materials of the article can be used by experts of social work in is information — the preventive purposes and to be useful to marketing specialists. The analysis of social advertising allowed to assume that in modern society, the new phenomenon — along with actually social advertising gained development, arose and successfully the social component of commercial develops.