The article is devoted to the characterization of the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the digitalization of society, with an emphasis on the technological aspect. The context of church-state relations during the pandemic period in the works of foreign and domestic authors is not the same: in Western liberal publications, attention is focused on the restrictions on democratic norms and liberal freedoms in the countries of the world, and in the works of Russian scientists, on the adaptation of state-confessional relations to the conditions of the pandemic, as well as on the processes of internal church life. To achieve this goal, the work uses institutional, culturological and constructivist approaches that allow scientifically arguing the author’s position. It was found that representatives of almost all religious denominations recognized the existential threat to humanity posed by the coronavirus and sided with the actions of state and municipal authorities to combat the pandemic. From the very beginning of the fight against the pandemic, the ROC built its policy on the basis of the recommendations of the secular authorities, even in cases where the possibility of performing religious rites and holding services was seriously limited. The internal conservative opposition did not radically influence the official policy of the church, while at the same time there is an increase in the social and civic activity of the ROC. The attitude to digitalization is associated with an understanding of the danger posed by technological capabilities in connection with the strengthening of state control over citizens and the restriction of rights and freedoms, including in the confessional sphere. At the same time, the church seeks to use the possibilities of modern technology to expand its influence, including among young people.

Aims: identification of the advantages and vulnerabilities of the Union State of Belarus and Russia as an integration format.

Methods: informal substantive analysis of documents, formal legal method, SWOT analysis.

Results and discussion: The strengths and weaknesses of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, opportunities and threats in internal and external dimensions are shown. The corresponding matrices characterizing the parameters of their probability and values for the Union construction are constructed. The content of integration decisions and agreements in key areas of Russian- Belarusian integration is analyzed. The peculiarities of the positions of the member states of the Union State on topical issues of the integration agenda are emphasized.

Conclusion: The saturation of the analyzed evaluation areas demonstrates a high degree of probability of the realization of both relevant opportunities and threats to the Union State of Belarus and Russia in internal and external dimensions. With a less risky development of events, it is internal factors that can change the qualitative characteristics of the process and the state of Russian-Belarusian integration — in a positive or negative sense. However, now a powerful destructive external influence is exerted on the Union State and its member countries, which can become the main driver of accelerating the “restart” of Russian- Belarusian integration.

The negative tone of statements about pan-Turkism and Turkey’s policy in the post-Soviet space in the Central Asian region prevails in the Russian media. Indeed, pan-Turkism is a strong factor in the emerging statehood of the newly independent states of the region. At the same time, and it is important to emphasize this, it is not the only and far from defining one. His influence manifested itself mainly in the first half of the 1990s. All the authors note the role of Turkey at the initial stage of the sovereignty of the countries of this region. Then, first, due to lack of resources, its influence in Central Asia began to wane. New players appeared in the region, representing the interests of Western countries and China. Russian economic, military, and political influence also became more stable and weightier. Turkey’s attempts in the XXI century to achieve new successes in promoting its interests based on the values of Turkism did not lead to the expected results. Economic and military-political competitors continued to outpace it, and their successes encouraged Ankara to make measurements during its policy. She became more and more realistic and pragmatic. For a few reasons, during the first decade of the new century, the Turkish upper classes somewhat cooled down to pan-Turkism. At the same time, the elites of the Central Asian countries got a taste of state nationalism and, cultivating their own values, emphasized their sovereignty and the right to a multi-vector foreign policy. Overcoming their dependence on Moscow, they also demonstrated their unwillingness to follow in the wake of Ankara’s interests. In the conditions оf De-globalization and fragmentation that began after the global crisis of 2008–2009 pan-Turkism is once again becoming an important factor in the sovereign positioning of the Turkic-speaking republics of Central Asia. At the same time, it has ceased to act as an instrument of Turkish expansion and today represents a new phenomenon — “collective pan-Turkism”, which testifies to the common interest and solidarity aspirations of its participants. Russia, China and other non-regional actors will have to reckon with this circumstance in the future.

In the 21st century, innovations are necessary because they allow us to withstand the rapidly changing and growing competition in a globalized world. Entrepreneurs who do not introduce innovations face stagnation and lagging behind competitors. Regardless of the size of the enterprise, the volume of production or the field of activity, innovation should be the hallmark of any modern enterprise. The innovation processes that take place at enterprises are determined by an extensive constellation of both internal and external conditions, which should be considered in the category of stimulators, as well as barriers to innovation. Enterprises can use various typical strategies to create and implement innovations. However, they must decide how to act innovatively, which strategy to choose and how to use it to ensure market success.

The article discusses the basic concepts and definitions of innovative activity of the enterprise, considers various approaches to the formulation of the concepts of innovative activity and innovation system. The basic principles of the mechanism of management of innovative activity of the enterprise are defined. The stages of formation of the organizational and economic mechanism of innovation management were also investigated, the theoretical foundations of the formation of such a mechanism were worked out.

The task of improving business performance always raises the problem of choosing the most effective ways to ensure it. The article is devoted to the substantiation of the business efficiency criterion, in accordance with the requirements of which those areas of business development that provide it with the greatest efficiency should be determined. The article puts forward and confirms the hypothesis that, according to the selected criterion the greatest efficiency can be provided not only by the variant of the simultaneous implementation of all possible directions for increasing efficiency, but also by the variant of their implementation in parts — in the form of sets of directions. The authors propose a model for the formation of an effective business, using Pareto optimality and implemented on the basis of two developed Algorithms, which is illustrated by a numerical example.

ESG-transformation of Russian companies is inevitable. The introduction of a “carbon” tax in many countries, fines for exceeding the level of greenhouse gas emissions provided for in Russian legislation, the introduction of adaptive and transformational sustainable development projects and their verification systems do not leave domestic companies any other way of development. For ESG transformation, companies need to develop and implement a package of policies and procedures. The study of the experience of leading Russian companies allowed us to define a framework list of policies and procedures necessary for ESG transformation and recommend the priority of their implementation. The purpose of the study is to identify and systematize the policies and procedures necessary for the ESG transformation of the corporation. The objectives of the study are the analysis of documents of Russian companies reflecting the implementation of the ESG agenda; the definition of framework policies and procedures and recommendations on the priority of their implementation. The study used methods of generalization, analysis and synthesis in terms of the study of methodological and legislative approaches to the formation of the ESG strategy of the corporation. It is necessary to start the transformation with the development of the G — corporate governance policy. Within the framework of this policy, the initial ones are image and control procedures, inventory of greenhouse gases, analysis of the industry value chain.

The authors of the article set a goal to identify the most accurate and economical methods for assessing the innovative potential of megacity in terms of the used resources. For that purpose, methods were selected, calculations were carried out for two of them, which were suitable for the goal and described in detail in the methodological literature. The results of two other methods presented in the public domain for comparable periods of time for three selected regions were used. The study used materials from Russian and foreign sources. Based on the results of the work done, certain conclusions were made that allow a more accurate selection of methods for assessing the innovative potential of cities, considering the objectives of such an assessment, as well as the resource availability of a group of researchers. A critical view is also presented on the further application of all methods, which requires researchers of the local innovation potential to have the accuracy, objectivity in assessments, and independence in their interpretation.

Project management plays significant role in modern economy and public administration. Project management trends have a great impact on the performance of projects and enterprises, methods and tools of management, training programs for managers. The ≪Pulse of the Profession ≫ survey, regularly published by the Project Management Institute, allows tracking current trends in project management practice. In 2021, the ≪Pulse of the Profession≫ was dedicated to a new concept — the ≪gymnastic≫ enterprise. In this article, the authors analyze the text of ≪Pulse of the Profession≫, 2021 using mixed research methods including qualitative and quantitative content analysis tools. The results show the closeness of the ≪gymnastic≫ enterprise concept to the concept of organizational ambidexterity. A content analysis helped to identify the key organizational practices of ≪gymnastic≫ enterprise, such as the situational use of hybrid project management methodologies and methodological pluralism, the combination of structural coherence and flexibility in project management processes, the active use of entrepreneurial and innovative methods and approaches, as well as tools and techniques for talent management, organizational change and learning. The indicated practices allow ≪gymnastic≫ enterprises to achieve better results in comparison with ≪traditional≫ companies. The results also indicate the ability of the ≪gymnastic≫ enterprise concept to influence project management practice, educational and training programs and consulting services in the field of project management.

Since February 2022, the Russian economy has been developing in the changed external political and economic conditions, determined by sanctions pressure from the “collective West”. The purpose of imposing sanctions is to weaken the Russian economy and force the political leadership of our country to make decisions in the military, social and economic spheres that do not reflect the national interests of the Russian Federation. The negative impact of sanctions on the national economy and new threats to national security, including in the military sphere, are today forcing us to reconsider approaches to regulating the activities of enterprises in the military-industrial complex, which are the economic basis for ensuring Russia’s military security. The author proposes to do this through the institutional modernization of the State Defense Order system, considering existing experience and decisions already made during 2022. The article discusses some of the most significant (according to the author) directions for improving the regulation of economic relations in Russia in the field of the State Defense Order and proposes adjustments to the rules for regulating economic activity in military-economic relations.

The study aims to identify the role of university and professional education in the formation of human capital, which is embodied in different rates of economic development at the regional level in the Russian Federation. With the method of regression analysis we compare the level of education of the population with the rating of universities located in the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. Using the methods of endogenous growth theories, the contribution of human capital to the interregional difference in gross regional product per capita was estimated. The absence of a relationship was found between the dependent variable (gross regional product per capita) and the independent variables (education index, the number of universities in the list of the best universities). When comparing two regions of the Russian Federation, in which the discrepancy between the rating of universities and the level of education was most obvious, it was found that the difference in gross regional product per capita is completely determined by the state of human capital. This distinguishes subnational comparisons from cross-country comparisons, where physical capital and related to technologies residuals play a role. Among the considered indicators of higher, professional education, postgraduate and doctoral studies, the relative level of professional education seems to be most significantly affect at the growth of the region’s well-being, expressed in gross regional product per capita.

The article is devoted to the use of sports as a tool of soft power, the influence of sports on the formation of the image of the state. The material examines the increased role of international sports organizations and sports in general. It is noted that in the modern world the possibilities of sports diplomacy have seriously increased. Particular attention is paid to the confrontation between the Middle Eastern states, which have practically mastered the ability to politically influence the world community using the tools of sports diplomacy.

Theoretical generalizations and comparative analysis made it possible to analyze the resonant sports events that took place at the largest tennis, judo and rally racing competitions.

The aim of the work is to determine the influence of sport as an effective means of soft power in modern international relations.

As a result of the study, various types of use of sports as a tool of soft power were demonstrated, and its effectiveness as an effective means of political struggle was proved using the example of the Middle East states. As a conclusion, it can be noted that at present, states that successfully combine various aspects of public diplomacy will achieve greater success. In this context, the development of sports at the national level makes it possible to increase the reputation of the state, creates a positive image, which makes it possible to achieve certain goals in the political arena.

The present study investigates the degree to which countrywide health expenditures as a measure of pandemic preparedness reduce mortality from COVID-19, using data on 96 countries of the world. A statistically significant negative effect of higher health expenditure on expected mortality is found for low-income countries. This effect for middle- and high-income countries is insignificant. Leading threats to the internal validity of this study are omitted variable bias and sample selection bias. Some ways in which this study can be built upon are suggested.