2011 Issue №4(10)

Sustainable development is a term that is widely used by politicians nowadays. The definition of the concept of sustainable development is constantly revised. Sustainable development is about promoting an integrated approach. It includes economic, social and environmental objectives. Economic objectives include growth, efficiency and stability. The main purpose of the article is to analyze the influences of corruption on sustainable economic growth. The impact is decreasing continuously and the main reason behind this is the change in peoples’ attitude and saturation to ethically questionable actions. Individuals and organizations can join in sharing resources for creating a sustainable future. There are several factors that influence sustainable development. Among them are: government policies; management and organization; financial and economic factors. The main question for institutional sustainability may be formulated as the following: can the strengthened institutional structure continue to deliver the results of technical cooperation to the ultimate end-users? Individuals and organizations can join in sharing resources for creating a sustainable future. Anticorruption strategies are related to the reform of state institutions. One advantage of the fundamental economic reform approach is that by linking anticorruption strategies to the reform of economic policies and institutions, the struggle against corruption can be seen as one of the issues in economic policy. Finally, all development assistance should be implemented with the aim of achieving sustainable benefits.

This article focuses on the correlation between the contemporary crisis phenomenon in the Eurozone and some CIS countries, and the existing Euroregions. We attempt to analyze the interdependence of the qualitative aspect of cross-border relations of European countries with their economic sustainability in the context of regional international integration. The theoretical significance of this work lies in the revealed correlation between the efficiency of cross-border Euroregions and the additional resources that can be retrieved in the framework of national economic policy during global recession. The practical component lies in clarifying the conceptual framework for the formation of successful crossborder cooperation in today's Europe. The authors employed the historical-descriptive approach and factual consideration of the cross-border and macro-regional level of interaction between European countries. The main results are as follows. The crisis in several EU countries is associated with a complex of causes that deplete the platform for multilateral cooperation in Europe. To a lesser extent, the crisis has affected the states that are actively involved in cross-border cooperation projects. The formation of European regions is closely related to the industrial development of their regions. The Post-Soviet space requires a redistribution of the overcentralized power. The abundance of Euroregions along the perimeter of certain states may be an indicator of economy's resilience to potential shocks. The provisions set forth in the article contribute to an improvement of the scientific understanding of political regionalistics and take the current understanding of the international system to the level of cross-border relations and institutions creating a system of interrelated elements of macro-regional and national building. The results can be applied in the development of a conceptual and legal framework for the construction of cross-border political formations in the Post-Soviet space, especially, within the Eurasian Economic Community, which coined the concept of «eurasiaregion».

Russia's accession to the WTO is an efficient instrument of the country's integration into the globalized world economy. However, it can adversely affect a number of enterprises and industries within the national economy. Thus, there is a need to develop a methodology for the assessment of the preparedness for operating under WTO membership conditions, which can be practically applied in the development of measures aimed at increasing the competitiveness of economic entities. This determines the objective of the research. This article offers the author's assessment of the reasonability of Russia's accession to the WTO and suggests methodological approaches to the assessment of preparedness of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation for functioning in the new economic conditions based on the algorithm of choosing a system of indicators, as well as the organisation of enterprise monitoring according to this system, which makes it possible to formulate rational administrative decisions in order to minimise the adverse effects of Russia's accession to the WTO. The major result of the research is the conclusion that, although the objective of identifying the start position of the constituent entities before the accession to the WTO and its possible implications is quite difficult to attain, it is both theoretically and  practically feasible.

Russia promotes the application of GLONASS satellite information system in regional economies. In three regions, the system has already been introduced and is widely used, 21 more regions are introducing the system. Experts believe that this process will take from 3 to 5 years. The introduction and integrated use of GLONASS pose a number of organizational and economic problems for regional administrations. One of such problems is the evaluation of economic benefit from GLONASS implementation in the region. Economics has developed a large number of methodological approaches to the calculation of such effects in different fields of satellite information application: Earth's remote probing, crop yield forecasts, forestry, water industry and agricultural monitoring, etc. However, the research shows that attempts to perform a calculation for various fields of satellite information application at a regional level prove the existing approaches to be inefficient due to the difficulties in obtaining initial data. To this effect, the authors developed a normative methodical approach to the calculation of the effect of integrated GLONASS application. This approach is meant to fill the existing gap and makes it possible to evaluate the economic benefit of an integrated GLONASS application for different fields.

This article analyses the issues of EU energy policy in the 1990s-the beginning of the 2000s in order to identify the features of energy supply and energy safety of the Baltic region countries. The research and practical significance of the work lies in the stepwise description of actions taken by EU leaders and EU member states in order to formulate a common European energy policy. The 2004 EU enlargement posed the problem of taking into account the features of energy supply of Eastern European countries and, especially, the Baltic States. The energy industries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as other Eastern European and CIS countries, are closely related to the energy industry of the Russian Federation. Trying to allow for this circumstance, EU leaders and energy structures took a number of organizational measures aimed, on the one hand, at an increase in energy independence of new members of the EU and, on the other hand, at taking into account the recent trends in the energy market development. The research shows that most of the initiatives do not take into account the perspective and interests of Russia, which has a strong presence in the energy market. The analysis conducted will help the assessment of prospects of further development of the Baltic States' energy industry and its interaction with that of the Russian Federation.

This article sets out to identify the attitude of the Danish mass media to modern Russian innovations. The research is timely because of the Russian interest in the experience of Denmark — one of the "innovation leaders" of the EU. The author analyses a number of publications on Russia in the Danish mass media. The positive image of Russian innovations in Danish periodicals is analysed against the background of historical stereotypes. The article also describes the Danish national innovation system. The image of Russian innovations in the Danish mass media is positive; however, the articles dedicated to Russian innovations constitute a small part of reports on developments in Russia. The article also contributes to social surveys carried out in Denmark through introducing new data. The research results can be used by politicians, scholars and social activists interested in the relations with Denmark.

Both the official (state and diplomatic) and business protocols are frequently used in Europe; in Russia, it has become a focus of attention in recent years. Thus, there arises a need of training specialists in protocol. However, this aspect has not been tackled effectively by Russian universities. This article is aimed at identifying the need for the professional study of protocol at Russian universities. The paper analyses the level of teaching protocol disciplines in Europe and Russia and considers the results of the first Russian forum on protocol. The main conclusion drawn is that there is a need for introducing a qualification of an expert in protocol into Russian science. This research will help Russian universities create training plans for protocol disciplines.