From the Chief Editor.

The article considers the problems and methods of evaluating the effectiveness of the system of state and municipal management. Effective monitoring requires that the system of all monitored indicators be uniform and consistent, and that the indicators themselves be adequately reflected in the performance evaluation system of civil or municipal employees. Currently, such conditions are not provided.

In this article, the authorы explores political parties in the framework of the conflictological paradigm. The researcher notes its close relationship with the paradigm of symbolic interactionism. To understand the nature of the conflict between political parties interacting in a political process, the author operationalizes key concepts and categories: competition, market and market failures, political market, competitive political process, political process, democratic process and components of the political process. As a result of the study, the authors comes to the conclusion that the conflict within the framework of political competition of parties and their interaction (transactions) has its own measure of utility. At the same time, competition and the existence of conflicts between political parties is a competitive, but largely democratic process.

The article analyzes the geopolitical and military-strategic importance of the Arctic. External and internal threats to the development of this region are ascertained. The author notes the competencies of St. Petersburg in solving strategic management tasks during the socioeconomic development of the Arctic. The course of work on the substantiation of the external borders of the continental shelf of the Russian Federation in the Arctic Ocean is considered. The competencies that St. Petersburg has in developing the Arctic are substantiated.

This article is devoted to the study of the influence of Internet technologies and social media on the forms of political participation of modern citizens. The author notes that the Internet contributes more to the politicization of citizens, providing them with new opportunities for communication, obtaining and producing political information and committing collective actions. The author believes that under the influence of the Internet, political participation is transformed in two directions: 1. there is a technological modernization of instrumental and procedural forms of participation; 2. new forms of political participation are emerging.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was introduced in the United Nations’ agenda in 2017. Since then, it remains a corner stone in the discussions on the perspectives of the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Treaty has already divided the community of non-nuclear states and stipulated the rise of anti-nuclear activism around the world. This paper is aimed at the analysis of the position of post-Soviet Central Asian states towards TPNW. The author consequently analyses the reaction of the governments of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, with the special focus on Kazakhstan’s policy, as this country supports TPNW and demonstrates an example of the most consistent anti-nuclear policy course. The review of the Central Asian states’ positions towards TPNW is worth studying in particular due to their partnership with Russia, and the specific feature of combining the partnership and sometimes different views on the international issues.

The purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical model of the communication policy of public authorities of the Russian Federation under the conditions of the information society development and justification of the critical conditions of its implementation. The methodological background of the study is a problem analysis of existing communication practices of public authorities to identify the key integrative problems that hinder the achievement of the goal of effective communication policy for the development of the information society. These include: consideration of the technological factor as a key element and the conditions for the formation of the information society; a significant emphasis on national security, understood in a restrictive, isolationist sense; the construction of state communication policy on the basis of a unified, unidirectional communication process; the communication gap from other stakeholders of the information society; identification of communication with information. These problems were decomposed and transformed into governance challenges, and the communication process of public authorities in Russia was designed taking into account the goals of the information society development and selected governance challenges. The results of the analysis justify the need to shift the emphasis of the formation and development of communication policy from the technological to the social one, namely, the formation of stakeholders of the information society, which includes public servants. Continuous training for the development of relevant knowledge and skills becomes an integral element of communication policy. The study also concluded that it is necessary to replace the restrictive, isolationist connotation of state security with a broader and more flexible interpretation of security as sustainable development. Using sustainable development as a metaphor (message) for stakeholder engagement, a clear communication policy model should be developed that takes into account the principles that follow from the theory of the information society and the communication theory of power.

We consider examines the place and role of E-learning in the Internet economy, the nature and features of the distributed system of E-learning, the practical experience of the managing of distributed E-learning system on the example of DELS “SPIDER”. This system is used in the preparation of students of the faculty of Economics and Finance at the North-West Institute of Management, branch of RANEPA. In the article the analysis of the impact of the Internet on learning, history of development of E-learning, the most important elements of the conceptual apparatus of E-learning, the essence of distributed E-learning system “SPIDER”. We identify a number of constraining factors for its implementation in the educational process. We identify a number of constraining factors for implementation in the educational process The method of teaching students with the use of modern Internet technologies based on DELS “SPIDER” :The authors formulated four principles of E-Learning: personal approach, calm study temp, favorable psychological climate, modern material and technical base in the institute and relax room for the teachers.

Goal: to identify and analyze threats to economic security in the food sector of the Republic of Mordovia and their sources.

Methods: a systematic approach, economic and statistical analysis, comparative analysis, generalization and interpretation of the results.

Results and discussion: the materials of the Republic of Mordovia analyzed the development of agricultural production over the past ten years, identified the main threats to economic security in the field of food supply and their sources, formulated proposals for the prevention and neutralization of threats

Conclusions. Conclusions are made about the existence of factors threatening the sustainable development of agriculture of the Republic of Mordovia, which requires the adoption of urgent measures to prevent and neutralize the identified threats.

The purpose of the article is to consider the use of the project approach in the strategic management of the development of Russian regions. The problem of identification of features of use of project management in activity of public authorities is solved. The key idea of the study was the need to improve the competencies of state managers to ensure sustainable and balanced socio-economic development of territories.

The article provides a brief overview of the history of import substitution in Russia. The reasons for the strategic failure of Soviet industrialization are described. The results of comparative analysis of two import-substituting leaps in post-Soviet Russia are presented. An overview of options for the use of foreign resources for the benefit of the domestic military-industrial complex (MIC) is given. Recommendations on the implementation of import substitution in the Russian MIC are formulated.

The article analyses the transformation of the world system of economic relations from the point of view of ensuring the economic security of Russia. It is shown that at the heart of this transformation is the struggle for economic, technological, and political leadership of the United States in the context of the formation of preconditions for its loss. The main factors influencing the ongoing transformations have been identified and their contribution to ensuring global and national (for Russia) security, first of all — economic.

The article proposes a methodology for estimating the expected cost of technical and technological innovations. The evaluation is performed in the pre-design phase of the innovation (project initiation phase). It relies on the method of analogy and is implemented based on the principle of “so was - so will be.” At the same time, the available analogues provide objective information about “how it was.” Extending this data into the future to estimate the cost of design relies on probabilistic interpretation of the available uncertainty. Uncertainty removal is accomplished using the principle of maximum entropy. This ensures the most complete consideration of the available objective information and minimizes speculation in assessing the cost of designing innovative objects. In general, the methodology proposed in the article allows obtaining objective estimates of the expected cost of designing technical and technological innovations in the standard information situation for the initiation stage of the project.

The article deals with the development of the system of state support of innovative entrepreneurship. The mechanism of influence of scientific and technical factors on the development of innovative processes in small businesses. The role of small enterprises in the system of large high-tech production. Methods of sustainable economic growth and further accelerated transition of the domestic economy from the raw material path to innovation that is undoubtedly a benchmark of economic development of Russia.

The objective of this study is to measure the image of Russia formed by RT and BBC, to compare the results of the traditional and of the content-analysis.

Data and methodology: the traditional and the content-analysis of the BBC and of the RT text documents connecting to the Jamahiriya falling from 15.02.2011 to 10.03.2012; within the framework of the content-analysis — correlation-regression analysis. The reliability of statistical connection was checked up by means of the F-test.

Results. According to the content-analysis in both RT and BBC Russia is associated with a system of concepts symbolizing power and strength in international relations and is not associated with democracy or authoritarianism in any way. According to the traditional analysis in RT Russia is a strong power that shares the values of democracy and is ready to fight authoritarianism at the cost of renouncing its own interests. In BBC Russia is a weak international relations actor, unable to deal with the development of its own consistent foreign policy, inclined to support authoritarianism, but forced to give up NATO’s authority.

Conclusion: the researcher’s subjectivity greatly distorts the overall picture, and content-analysis allows for more objective results. Or the tendentiousness of media channels in forming the image of Russia is realized by selective coverage of significant events. Within the framework of the materials themselves, held in the style of objective judgment, it does not manifest itself in any way.

The purpose of this article is an attempt to give a comprehensive answer to the question — what should be an integrated assessment and analysis of education from a managerial and economic point of view. From the completeness and correctness of the answer, both the effectiveness of the analysis itself and the effectiveness of the assessment and the set of proposed management decisions substantially depend

The example of the analysis of patent activity shows the solution of the problem related to the assessment of the development potential of technical systems. The main possibilities of modern information resources of patent analytics are described. It is shown how the analysis of patent information helps to select the most promising scientific and technical solutions and technologies for development, to identify trends in the industry, to analyze the market situation to determine the main competitors and partners, to assess the competitiveness of the developed products, to form requirements and to draw up a plan for research and development, to develop a strategy for innovative development of the enterprise.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is considering in the article as a mechanism of citizens’ participation in budget policy at the local level. Based on the parameters of evaluating the effectiveness of participatory budgeting projects, the paper presents the preliminary results of the comprehensive study of e-participation institutional model, describing the feedback mechanism in the development and functioning of smart urban management systems (including e-governance). In this regard, the analysis of international PB projects’ evaluation methodologies, the study of the subject area, and the literature review on the subject of the study were conducted.

As a result of the study, the initial version of the smart city institutional model was refined, containing elements of participatory budgeting and electronic participation as feedback components. A comparative analysis of international methodologies for PB projects’ assessment is carried out; conclusions are formulated; directions for further research are described.

The subsequent analysis of PB projects’ evaluation methodologies will focus on the study of practices, based on the aspects of digital transformation and smart city development. Thus, the empirical results of this study can be used for the theoretical development of a new relevant methodology that takes into account the above described components.

The article is devoted to the study of digital discursive practices in the context of processes occurring in modern Russian politics. The author concludes that the digital public sphere of modern Russia is changing that was foreseen by J. Habermas. In the first part of the article classical approaches to the concept of “the public sphere” are analyzed and functional models of the public sphere and political communication are examined. In the second part of the article the author reveals the position of researchers in relation to the transformations of the public sphere caused by the active development of the Internet and social media and offers his own scheme for the functioning of the public sphere in a digital society. The third part focuses on discursive practices in the digital public domain. The results of author’s research using a special discourse analysis technique are presented. The advantages of this technique are revealed being based on the analysis of online discussions on the topic of raising the retirement age. At the end, discussion points and directions for further research in the field of digital public interaction between the state and citizens are indicated.

The article analyzes the role of information channels in the preparation and conduct of primary accreditation of medical specialists. The author draws attention to the fact that most of the difficulties that arise when implementing this procedure are associated with an abundance of misleading and provocative information materials, as well as a high speed of their distribution in the media space. A wide coverage of objective information, based primarily on regulatory legal acts, will significantly improve the efficiency of both the accreditation procedure for specialists and the entire medical education in the Russian Federation.

In the documentary “Where “Trojan Horse” and “Fifth Column” are Staggering Around” of A.F. Izmailov, a resident of blockade Leningrad, reveals nameless facts of the Battle of Leningrad in 1941-1944, organization of activities of the Red Army, NKVD bodies, guerrilla movement, militia, labor collectives, party, Soviet, Komsomol organizations in the fight against pro-fascist groups. Keywords: blockade of Leningrad, fight against profascist groups.