Moscow State Institute of International Relations

The article is devoted to the results of the study of the information and communication sphere in the Republic of Belarus, the role, place and importance of national and foreign information and communication resources. The state, challenges and threats to the national security of the Republic, the tools for conducting the information war of the Western countries against the Belarusian state are considered. Examples of the information impact of opposition channels in Telegram, Twitter, You Tube on the authorities in Belarus with the aim of removing A.G. Lukashenko from the post of the President of the Republic are given. Comparisons were made between the effectiveness and popularity of state-owned media and foreign private information resources. Priority areas of the research are identified and presented, the results should be used to strengthen counteraction to information and psychological attacks against Russia and Belarus.

Aim. The presented study aims to substantiate the need to use digital technologies in analytics to make effective management decisions and ensure cost reduction. Tasks. The authors determine the place of a digital analytics platform in cost analysis; identify key factors in the implementation of the platform; describe the capabilities of the tools provided by the analytics platform and how they can be used in the cost management process. Methods. This study uses general scientific methods; the results are summarized through tabular and graphical presentation; four groups of data analysis methods (descriptive and diagnostic analytics, predictive and prescriptive analytics) are identified; within each group, special methods of cost analysis (management analysis methods and advanced analytics methods) are indicated, which can be automated using an analytics platform. Results. It is found that the introduction of an analytics platform transforms the structure of time costs associated with performing analytical work, freeing up working time for solving other management tasks. It is established that analytics platforms are flexible and can find highly specialized solutions due to a wide range of tools and methods implemented on the basis of the platform. The selection of tools and methods depends on the tasks set as part of the cost analysis. Acceptable options for using advanced analytics tools within the framework of cost management are formulated. Conclusions. The analytical platform serves as a tool that improves the quality of data processing necessary for making effective management decisions. Comprehensive application of traditional cost analysis tools and advanced analytics facilitates the effective search for new opportunities for optimizing business processes, which is an urgent task in the context of uncertainty and limited resources. Considering the importance of the functions performed by the tools of the analytics platform and in connection with the withdrawal of foreign leaders in the field of business analytics from the Russian market due to sanctions, domestic vendors of analytical systems are faced with the challenge of further improving software products that should be on par with their foreign analogs in terms of functionality.

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR ), the majority of the 5.7 million UNHCR registered refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic ( SAR ) reside in five Member States of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation ( OIC ), namely Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The present study aims to discover the impact of the measures taken by UNHCR , European Union (EU), OIC , and states in question on the durable solution of the problem of externally displaced persons from SAR in accordance with applicable international law. It explores the scope of states’ international law obligations, their concepts of ‘burden sharing’ and ‘durable solution’ as well as legal aspects of the cooperation between the international organisations and states in question. The difference in legal positions of states and international organisations results in the lack of available forms of durable solution to the problem of external displacement from SAR .

The article looks into the use of metaphors in English economic discourse and examines ways to turn conceptual metaphor analysis into a learning tool for students of business English. We studied coverage of the economic impact of the 2020-22 pandemic on the tourism industry and the role that the conceptual metaphor «economy is a patient» plays in English economic discourse about these events. In our research we used corpus, semantic, conceptual and contextual analysis. The findings show that the conceptual metaphor «economy is a patient» has been common in English economic discourse. Moreover, writers have frequently incorporated economic terminology into extended metaphors, highlighting the interplay of primary dictionary and contextual meaning in what is considered “dead metaphors”. The research proves that even trite metaphors can still have a persuasive effect on the reader creating powerful images in his/her mind’s eye. It also becomes clear that when writers use conventional metaphors, they are fully aware of their figurativeness. From our perspective, using conceptual metaphor analysis methods in a business English class helps to achieve a number of teaching goals: it gives students useful insights into the origins of economic terminology, makes them culturally competent, helps them develop communicative skills. Therefore, it can be a useful learning tool. The research contributes to the study of metaphor in modern economic discourse. The findings of the research could be used to develop ways to help students to acquire a number of important communication and professional skills.

This study is aimed at analyzing the opinions and proposals of scientists from Russia and China on reducing harmful emissions into the atmosphere produced by urban transport. Many factors of air pollution are similar in the cities of these countries. Therefore, Chinese and Russian researcher’ proposals could be mutually useful for solving issues of improving air quality and reducing emissions. The study is based on a comprehensive data analysis. First of all, the Air Quality Index in the cities of China and Russia was analyzed using the World's Air Pollution resource. Statistical data and the results of a survey of the population on the causes of air pollution in the cities of their residence and measures to improve it were used; the publications of Russian and Chinese authors. As a general approach to address this issue, it is proposed to switch to electric public transport, including electric buses; restriction on trips by private vehicles to certain areas of cities; restriction on the entry of commercial vehicles during the hours of the greatest traffic. The Chinese authors propose a ban the sale of cars. Russian scientists have substantiated the idea of the influence of building density on the dispersion of polluted air.

This study covers the problems and prospects of integrating trolleybuses and trams into the public urban transport network of the Russian regions, to the analysis of the relevant experience of individual cities of the world. As part of the implementation of the national project "Safe High-Quality Roads", the regions are financed to modernize the rolling stock of trolleybuses and trams, expand the network of routes, and create modern infrastructure. The study identified the problems of transition to electric public transport, typical for Russian regions and individual foreign cities. In most cities of Russia, the fleet of trolleybuses and trams has drastically decreased compared to the Soviet period, tram lines often interfered with traffic due to increased urban traffic and were dismantled, the infrastructure and rolling stock are worn out and do not meet safety requirements. Abroad, city authorities face other problems: equipping trolleybuses and trams with security systems that allow them to avoid collisions with pedestrians and collisions with other city transport, equipping rolling stock with on-board batteries with recharging while driving, creating low-floor models of trams and trolleybuses. Thus, the task of switching to electric public transport is common on a global scale, but the problems that the city authorities of Russian and foreign regions need to solve differ significantly.

We examine the effect of CEO gender on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and corporate investment. Using the newspaper-based EPU index developed by Baker, Bloom, and Davis (2016), we perform an empirical investigation on firm-level data of more than 38,000 firms from eight European countries for 2010–2019. We find evidence that higher EPU is associated with higher corporate investment. However, we show that this beneficial effect of economic policy uncertainty is lower when the firm CEO is a woman. We explain this finding by the higher risk aversion of women relative to men. Our work contributes to the debate on the impact of EPU on firm corporate decisions by bringing upfront the influence of CEO gender.

Subject. This article discusses the importance of cooperation between Russia and Norway for the development of the Russian oil and gas industry. Objectives. The article aims to analyze the results of cooperation between Russia and Norway in the field of oil and gas production for 2000–2022. Methods. For the study, we used content analysis, statistical analysis, and deduction. Results. The article finds that for the period from 2000 to 2021, cooperation between Russia and Norway in the field of natural resources extraction was positive, which is explained by the importance of the oil and gas industry for the economies of the two countries and the great prospects for the development of Arctic fields. Conclusions. In 2022, the imposition of sanctions against Russia caused the Norwegian companies' refusal to participate in joint projects in the energy sector. In the short and medium term, Norwegian investment in the Russian oil and gas industry should not be expected.

The Agreement between the USSR and the USA on exchanges in the field of culture, technology, science and education, signed on January 27, 1958 in Washington DC by W. S. Lacy US Secretary of State Special Assistant for East-West Exchanges, and G. N. Zarubin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to the USA is considered. The question is raised about the role of this agreement in the Soviet- American science diplomacy of the late 1950s — early 1960s. Based on a review of the biographies of senior officials who participated on the American and Soviet sides in its conclusion and implementation, the personality factor in these scientific and diplomatic processes was investigated. It is proved that their high professionalism, pragmatism and the similarity of career paths had a positive impact both on reaching mutual understanding regarding the interstate agreement being concluded, and on giving the latter an extremely specific character. Particular attention is paid to the provisions of the Lacy—Zarubin agreement, which regulated the visits of scientists and researchers, as well as academic exchanges. To assess the effectiveness of the treaty implementation in this part, the Report of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations dated August 20, 1959, prepared under the leadership of Senator J. Fulbright, was introduced as a source and analyzed in detail. It is noted that the clarity in determining the goals, means and ways to achieve them allowed the Lacy—Zarubin agreement to become a solid and resistant to juncture fluctuations in the conditions of the Cold War, the basis for scientific and technical cooperation between the USSR and the USA, which determined the vector of their development over the decade and a half that followed the signing of the document.

The article elaborates the conceptual material published earlier in the journal (Russia has Spread its Wings. Phenomenology of Developing the Global System Contradiction of Our Era// Vestnik of the Russian Plekhanov University of Economics. – 2022. – Vol. 19. – N 5 (125). – pp. 44-53), which requires a specific approach to resolving vital problems facing Russia today. It is caused by unprecedented after the World War 2 institutional challenges launched by the collective West that aim at destruction of the Russian state system, at elimination of Russian identity, at eradication of Russia as it is, as a nation. Earlier the authors revealed specific features of the current stage in developing the global system contradiction ‘creditors – debtors’ and the origin of its sharp phase in view of diverse forms of total hybrid and informational war. Within the context of the present publication the authors characterize a sharp phase of developing the global system contradiction in the current era. Recognition of social and economic contradiction as a global phenomenon of our age was confirmed in the speech by President of Russia V.V.Putin at the plenary session of the 19th annual forum of the International Discussion Club ‘Valdai’: ‘…This forms the principle contradiction of the current epoch… the situation is revolutionary.’ In order to apply and promote social technologies which were chosen and announced a political doctrine the US and UK elites devised and started a keen, rather inventive, cynical propaganda machine, i.e. the machine of lie. The global start of the machine took place on September 11, 2001 that can be called the beginning of the World War 3 – the hybrid war. It was followed by informational and power attacks on countries and nations, peoples of the Earth innocent towards the US and UK. Anglo-Saxon elites shale public opinion in the format of cash-masters’ ideological paradigm, develop and implement mechanisms for transforming public opinion, use the doctrine ‘Overtone Window’, the manipulation matrix of political and social management. Massed informational flow is used to form a ‘smoke-screen’, which can hide true grounds and intentions of architects of global predomination. Military pressure on thoughts, souls and bodies of people, first of all bloody slaughters unleashed by the US, are meant to disrupt foundations of humanistic civilization and secure global predomination over the world and cash masters’ control. Russia has accepted the challenge. Today Russia is facing numerous crucial problems, which must be resolved by all means.

The article examines the management structure of the fuel and energy complex of Turkey as a system of coordinating the activities of state organisations with a certain degree of autonomy that has taken shape over the past two decades. The authors emphasise that this management system is characterised by a sign of decentralisation, which is manifested by the delegation and distribution of a number of powers between subordinate structures. It is assumed that the established tradition in management gives the system flexibility in making significant decisions, which is extremely necessary in conditions of uncertainty in the global hydrocarbon market. The article also analyses the established regulatory framework in the field of regulating the activities of management bodies in the fuel and energy complex of Turkey. The authors focus on two main documents – the president R.T. Erdogan decree, which defined the general principles of the key management body – the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, and the energy development plan for the period 2019–2023, which outlines the main tasks and objectives of the management bodies. Special attention is paid to issues of international cooperation. The authors believe that under the current conditions, more active cooperation between Russian and Turkish businesses will help strengthen the positions of Russian oil and gas companies in the energy market in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and the European Union. In the course of the research, both general theoretical methods of scientific cognition characteristic of most branches of science and special methods used in such branches of knowledge as management theory, law and economics found practical application.

Subject. This article discusses the development of forms of municipal government in Russia and abroad. Objectives. The article aims to assess the quality of expert and analytical support for the activities of municipal authorities and identify the potential for their development. Methods. For the study, we used contextual, comparative, and logical and linguistic analyses. Results. The article presents a typological grouping of Russian and foreign associations operating in the field of local self-government. Conclusions. The results of the study can be used to develop educational programmes in specialties related to State and municipal management.

For Russia, the political situation in the Persian Gulf region is of fundamental importance due to the size of its resource potential, its significant role in the global energy sector, geographical proximity, and the influence of the Arabian countries on the Muslim population of our country. The relative political stability and economic weight of the Arabian monarchies serve as the basis of the new – Arabian vector of Russia's Middle East policy. The influence of the monarchies of the Persian Gulf zone, primarily the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is growing in the region. The author tried to answer the question: what are the opportunities and prospects for establishing partnership relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia? Besides cooperation in the settlement of regional conflicts and the fight against international terrorism, the creation of a collective security zone in the Persian Gulf, coordination of actions in the oil market, bringing economic relations to a new qualitative level, and the development of humanitarian contacts are the most realistic areas of rapprochement.

The paper aims to indentify and compare the determinants of the overall FinTech market expansion and its major segments – cryptocurrency and peer-to-peer lending markets – in a dataset, which covers 64 countries and 51 potentially relevant factors. To this end, we apply a battery of state-of-the-art variable selection techniques from machine learning, comprising Bayesian model averaging (BMA), least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), variable selection using random forests (VSURF) as well as spike-and-slab regression. We document substantial heterogeneity of the pivotal determinants across the FinTech market as a whole and its major segments. Thus, specific rather than general policy measures are needed to foster the development of standalone FinTech market segments. Moreover, our findings suggest that most countries don’t need to seek a universal specialization in FinTech activities, concentrating on the segment where they have a competitive edge in terms of the pivotal determinants which drive its expansion.

INTRODUCTION. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea imposes obligations on states to protect and preserve the marine environment. They are responsible under international law. In order to ensure prompt and adequate compensation for all damage caused by marine pollution, states shall cooperate in implementing existing international law concerning liability and in developing procedures for adequate compensation, such as liability insurance or compensation funds MATERIALS AND METHODS. In the article the author analyzes international treaties that form the basis of the regime of international legal liability for marine pollution from ships, such as the Oil Pollution Damage Convention 1969, the International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea 1996, the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Fuel Pollution Damage 2001. The research is based on general scientific methods of knowledge (system and structural approaches, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction), as well as special methods used in legal science (comparative legal, historical legal and formal dogmatic). RESEARCH RESULTS. Based on the analysis carried out, the author came to the following research results: Together the three conventions - the CSA, the COW and the Bunker Convention - form a single regime of liability for marine pollution, the source of which are ships, and strive for identity of all definitions in order to avoid inconsistencies in their interpretation. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. In the course of the analysis, the author referred to the debatable points expressed in the scientific literature concerning the completeness of the legal regulation of liability for marine pollution from ships. After which the author made a conclusion that, although a significant amount of marine pollution accounts for pollution from ships, the existing international legal mechanisms for regulating liability issues in this area can be regarded as sufficient.

INTRODUCTION. The international legal content of the concept of sustainable development, so common in international treaties and sometimes expressed in different terms, undoubtedly requires modern clarification, as well as its place in the system of international law. Firstly, it is interesting to answer the question of how ideas of sustainable development have resulted in their crystallization as a concept of international law. Secondly, using treaty sources of the international law of the sea, where this notion is particularly common, it is meaningful to identify the intentions of States parties to such treaties to consider sustainable development clauses as legal obligations. Thirdly, it is important to determine whether these clauses now constitute a principle of the international law of the sea or whether they retain the status of separate treaty obligations that are not interrelated. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article is based on the analysis primarily of the norms of the international law of the sea, in which the term «sustainable development» is applied, with reference to the scientific and legal literature and judicial decisions relevant to the topic. The research involves methods of legal construction, legal modeling, analysis and synthesis, systematic, struc­tural-functional, formal-logical, formal-legal, histori­cal and chronological methods. RESEARCH RESULTS. The analysis of international treaties and other international legal instruments applicable to the issue has shown that the long-standing ideas of «sustainable development» are now normatively well-established; that the provisions of international treaties on sustainable development have already developed as an inter-branch (cross-cutting) principle of international law at the intersection, primarily, of the international law of the sea and international environmental law; that States undertake in practice explicit obligations and exercise relevant rights in the framework of upholding this cross-cutting principle. The authors’ vision of the content of this principle is offered and its various manifestations in the international law of the sea are shown. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The study critically evaluates the prevailing view in the Western international legal literature that the idea of sustainable development was suggested by the 1987 Report «Our Common Future» (the Brundtland Report). It has been shown that the idea predates this report, and that the initial mechanisms for sustainable development had already been reflected in existing interna­tional treaties by 1987. The suggestion is made that the international legal concept of sustainable development has several cumulative components that together define its content. Among these there are elements that are part of this concept primarily because they are means of achieving sustainable development goals, having a much narrower scope if interpreted in isolation. The international legal principle of sustainable development seeks to resolve the tensions primarily between the States’ right to development and their duty to protect the environment, serving as a nexus that ensures that neither the one nor the other is neglected. Its social dimension is undoubtedly significant, although it has been interpreted very differently in the interna­tional legal literature. In the context of contemporary international law, it is expedient to assert an inter-branch (cross-cutting) nature of the sustainable development principle: its legal content extends beyond the scope of specific branches of international law, including international law of the sea, international environmental and economic law. However, most international treaties of a universal and especially regional character that contain some form of sustainable development clauses currently refer to sources of the international law of the sea, which may certainly change in the future.

The article deals with “complex” cases of territorial development after the collapse of the USSR: secession, autonomization, gray zones of statehood in all post-Soviet republics. Taking into account both realistic and constructivist grounds of secession, the author lists the main factors (geographical, historical, political, sociological, cultural, linguistic, military) that affect the processes of autonomy and the withdrawal of territorial polities from the parent states, postulating that none of them is repeated in all 20 cases studied. This means that no factor is determinative, although Western sources often refer to Russian patronage in the post-Soviet space as such. The most popular factors are the functioning of the state -the segment within which the secession is being formed, and the presence of a political organization among the separatists (17 cases out of 20).

The article focuses on the problem of optimizing human resource management with systematic coverage of economic efficiency and corporate social responsibility. The purpose of the article is to study the role of outsourcing in the humanization of entrepreneurship in the AI economy. The potential of outsourcing in the field of entrepreneurship development in the AI economy is justified through econometric modeling using the regression analysis method on the example of companies from the “Global-500” in 2022. Promising directions for the development of “smart” outsourcing in support of the humanization of entrepreneurship in the economy using the method of comparative analysis are determined through the identification of its advantages in comparison with traditional outsourcing for the humanization of entrepreneurship. Using the case study method, successful examples of the use of “smart” outsourcing in various business operations of entrepreneurship are systematized. The key conclusion is that in the AI economy, the humanization of entrepreneurship can be provided with the help of “smart” outsourcing, which is more preferable than traditional outsourcing due to its increased flexibility, rationality, and efficiency. The theoretical significance lies in clarifying the specifics of outsourcing in the AI economy, as well as in justifying the preference for “smart” outsourcing and in providing a scientific methodology for its implementation. The practical significance is connected with the fact that the proposed practical recommendations on the implementation of “smart” outsourcing allow to improve the efficiency of entrepreneurial activity and strengthen the resilience of businesses to economic crises, supporting economic growth through “smart” outsourcing.