Initiatives of Strategic Development of The Russian Federation: Evolution and Limitations

The paper provides an analytical review of the most significant socio-economic initiatives of the Russian Federation over the past 20 years. The considered period of time is divided into intervals due to the introduction of sanctions by foreign states against the Russian Federation after reunion with Crimea. The complex of strategies of the pre-sanction period, including the doubling of GDP and the "May" decrees of the Russian President in 2012, were mainly related to domestic politics and, in general, were not fully implemented. In particular, the goal of doubling the GDP was only half completed. The trajectory of the Russian Federation as an energy power faced geopolitical confrontation in the European market, which led to the cancellation and complications in the implementation of the South Stream and Nord Stream 2 transnational gas pipeline projects. The anti-crisis strategy of import substitution proclaimed after the announcement of sanctions against the Russian Federation ended with very modest results, although initially it assumed a rise in the development of high-tech industries. The goal-setting of 2018 in the form of national projects and its further revision in 2020 led to an unfinished reboot of the guidelines for domestic socio-economic development. In the face of acute foreign policy confrontation, the Russian Federation demonstrates a high solidarity with global development initiatives, including the Paris Agreement on Climate, as well as antiquated policies and mass vaccination of the population. Despite the already incurred and expected socio-economic damage from joining global development initiatives, this line of behavior of the Russian Federation is sustainable. The analysis of the rhetoric in the national security strategy of the Russian Federation, which has been dynamically changing after 2014, shows the strengthening of the orientation of the Russian Federation towards the East (India, China), as well as an emphasis on the movement towards unity with the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples.

Prezydent w systemie politycznym Rosji. Rozwiązania prawne i praktyka polityczna

The president’s strong position in Russia’s political system results from two important factors. First of all, these are constitutional and legal solutions that equip the president with a range of powers of his own and those of other authorities, making the head of state office almost hegemonic. Secondly, these are extra-legal factors, the so-called personality factors, assigned to individual Russian presidents who exercised power under almost on the same legal regulations and very similar competences. However, the presidencies of Yeltsin, Medvedev, and Putin were very different. The article analyzes the thesis that until March 2020, the strong position of the Russian president was not only legal, but also “personal.” The announced amendment of the Constitution in 2020 in terms of counting the president’s new term of office means Putin’s attempt to give priority to legal regulations, which in consequence will allow the extension of his rule in the majesty of the law and will not allow a system of “two powers.”

Russian president again pushes NATO threat narrative

Headline RUSSIA: Putin again pushes NATO threat narrative

Socio-political choice of Russia in the context of ideologies

In the article, the author analyzes the differences in value orientations and the specifics of the party-political systems of Western countries and Russia, the features of the basic values of the United Russia party and the value orientations of Russian citizens. The problem of borrowing and using successful foreign experience and finding one's own way of development has always been in the center of Russian political discourse. Today conservative as well as liberal approaches prevail in politics in Western countries, until recently they were present in the form of the ideology of the new right. In Russia the dominant “United Russia” party has been in power since 2003 and it positions itself as an all-encompassing or "catch-all" party. However, there are liberal and conservative wings in United Russia. The second one is closer to the ideological platform of the parties of the new right, which in practice in politics abandon the model of the welfare state. According to the surveys, in Russia the neoliberal values recorded in the program documents of United Russia do not meet the expectations of the majority of Russians who demand an active social policy. This contradiction, according to the author, is connected with the decline in popularity of the pro-presidential United Russia, which Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to stop by supporting social programs, while relying on some members of United Russia and the ONF. United Russia won the elections to the State Duma in 2021, but the influence of socially oriented political parties in society and the state is increasing.

Azerbaijan-Armenia dispute resolution faces disruption

Significance Hosted in Sochi by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two leaders repeated past general commitments to stability, border demarcation and open transport communications. The clashes on November 15-16 were the largest, though not the first, military escalation since the 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku seems to be waging a campaign of attrition to force Yerevan to submit to its wishes. Impacts The resurgence in fighting close to where Russian peacekeepers are deployed highlights Moscow's limitations as rule-maker. Iran may increase its diplomatic support for a weakened Armenia in order to maintain a regional balance. Turkey will encourage or reject a possible rapprochement with Armenia, depending on what Azerbaijan does.

Dildoshops, Gritty, and Bernie’s Mittens: The Framing of American Politics Through Pop Cultural Memes

An unprecedented number of memes emerged in response to the 2020 U.S. presidential elections. This article offers a thematic analysis of a corpus of memes published on Twitter between November 3, 2020 and January 20 2021 in relation to the U.S. presidential election. By further employing a qualitative discourse analysis and close readings of selected examples, this article explores the stances and intertextual references expressed in the memetic discourse. I illustrate which events users engage with, how they frame them using the elements of American pop culture, and the different functions such memes served for different publics. Central events – such as Donald Trump’s press conference in a Four Seasons Total Landscaping parking lot, Joe Biden’s victory and rumors about the Russian president Putin resigning – were commented upon both with broad references to widely popular franchises such as Star Wars and with multi-layered intertextual references to iconography of meme culture such as the Hockey mascot Gritty. Memes exaggerated events for comedic purposes, providing relief after a long time of tension, as well as possibly trivializing and distorting public perception of events. While meme activity peaked on November 6th and 7th, a singular viral meme of Bernie Sanders emerged after Joe Biden’s inauguration, illustrating a different genre of meme as a response to a different political situation in which the political figure serves a wide variety of purposes in commenting upon popular culture. Such memes served to establish a sense of community, agency, and catharsis after the anxieties many Democratic voters experienced prior to the election. These findings present the growing role of popular and fan culture to political discourse on mainstream social media platforms and their varied and highly flexible expression.

Constitutional status of the Russian State Council in the mirror of actual constitutional reforms

The subject of research is social relations concerning the constitutional transformation of the State Council of the Russian Federation into the format of a constitutional state body, it’s tasks and functions in the unified system of public power. The aim of the research is to confirm or disprove hypothesis that the Russian State Council is a constitutional state body that ensures the coordinated functioning and interaction of authorities in the unified system of public power.The methodological basis of the research includes historical, comparative legal, formal legal methods, legal modeling and forecasting. The research is based on existing and historical legal acts, materials of judicial practice, as well as on the works of leading national lawyers.The main results, scope of application. The authors substantiate concept of the constitutional status of the Russian State Council as a completely new constitutional state body, formed on the basis of modern national principles of state building, taking into account the existing constitutional practice. Main task of the State Council is exercising the constitutional powers of the Russian President to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of public authorities, the definition of the main directions of national and foreign policy of the state. The article provides a critical analysis of the goals, tasks, functions of the Russian State Council, the decisions it makes, as a result of which a number of conflicts in the regulation of its constitutional-legal status are revealed. Some proposals to improve legislation and law enforcement practice aimed at solving of the discovered contradictions are made. Current constitutional of the State Council is a result of the constitutional amendments of 2020 in the Russian Constitution and innovations in the Federal Law on the State Council of the Russian Federation. The authors substantiate the idea that the consolidation of a new constitutional position of the State Council can be considered as a process of forming a completely new state body, designed to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of bodies included in the unified public system. A comparative legal analysis of the constitutional legislation on State Councils in foreign countries showed that despite the same name the status and functions of these state institutions differ greatly in different countries, therefore any comparative study of them will be unreliable.Conclusions. The Russian State Council has competence, functions of a state power character, take decisions signed by the President of the Russian Federation and therefore have a generally binding character. So it has the characteristics of a public authority. The Russian State Council is a new constitutional and legal structure - a constitutional state body created in order to implement the constitutional powers of the Russian President to ensure the coordinated functioning and interaction of other bodies (that are part of the unified system of public authority) and to determine the main directions of domestic and foreign policy of the state.

Russian President and local self-government: the evolution of relationships

The subject. An attempt is made to analyze the evolution of the relationship between the Russian Presidents and local self-government in modern Russia over the past 30 years.The methodology of the research is based on the application of the historical method and the method of comparative legal analysis of normative legal acts of the Russian Federation of different years.The purpose of the article is to confirm or dispute hypothesis that the President's relations with local self-government developed non-linearly and contradictory on the different stages.The main results, scope of application. The paper examines the dynamics of the relationship between the Russian Presidents and local self-government, determines the five stages of the development of such relations and their characteristic features, as well as the prospects for these relations after the adoption of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 2020.Stage 1. The absence of specific regulatory legal provisions on the participation of the President in local self-government issues and the actual practice of their interaction (July 1991 – October 1993).Stage 2. Arbitrary or authoritarian President’s participation in local self-government issues (October 1993 – August 1995). This stage is connected with the period of the constitutional crisis of 1993 and is characterized, first of all, by two decrees of the Russian President directly changing the provisions of the Law of the Russian Federation on Local Self-Government of 1991.Stage 3. Bringing the powers of the President in the field of local self-government in accordance with the Russian Constitution of 1993, the approval by the President of the main directions of state policy in the field of local self – government development in the Russian Federation, the creation of the Council for Local Self-Government under the President of the Russian Federation (August 1995 – August 2000).Stage 4. Strengthening the role of the President in the field of local self-government. The beginning of this stage is connected with the coming to power of the new Russian President (August 2000 – July 2020). So far, this is the longest stage in our chronology. This stage is characterized by additional regulation by the President of certain point issues in the field of organization and implementation of local self-government, directly provided for by federal law. Stage 5. The integration of local self-government bodies into a single system of public power and the receipt by the Russian President of hidden, virtually unlimited powers in the field of local self-government (from July 2020 to the present). The starting point of this stage was the adoption of amendments to the Russian Constitution in 2020.Conclusions. The interaction between the Russian President and local self-government developed in a zigzag pattern: from the complete absence of contacts to the direct intervention of the Russian President in the legal regulation of relations in the field of local self– government, violating and actually canceling the legislative regulation of these relations in 1993-1995. From bringing these relations into line with the Russian Constitution of 1993, which proclaimed the organizational independence of local self-government, to strengthening the role of the Russian President and regulating certain issues in the field of organization and implementation of local self-government. The expansion of the powers of the Russian President in connection with the amendments to the Russian Constitution in 2020 actually means an aside from the organizational independence of local self-government and the integration of local self-government bodies into a single system of public authorities. In this regard, the question arises: do the above amendments mean an actual return to the second stage of the development of relations between the Russian President and local selfgovernment in the period of 1993-1995, when the use of "hidden (implied)" powers of the President was allowed, and, consequently, theoretically unlimited participation of the Russian President in local self-government issues?

Strategies to End Violence in Ethnic Conflicts: What is Sufficient? The Case of “Peace” in Chechnya

After decades of violent separatist conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the region stabilized and peaceful in 2008. Despite this grand proclamation of peace, Chechnya today operates under an environment of violent repression and the conflict remains un-managed. This article argues that a threshold of sufficiency exists which settlement strategies must pass to achieve peace. While a perceived peace may occur when the armed conflict ends, without sufficient management strategies the identity-based roots of the conflict will manifest in other forms beneath the surface. By examining co-optation, power-sharing, autonomy and reconciliation, this research finds that while Russia’s incomplete conflict management strategy may have ended the violent insurgency within Chechnya, the failure to apply these principles sufficiently has allowed violence to continue. This research hopes to be applicable in informing strategies to resolve conflicts in multi-ethnic states within and beyond the North Caucasus.