The Accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO: Geopolitical implications for Russia’s position in the Baltic Sea region
... isolation in the region and to prevent a dangerous escalation of tensions, fraught with a direct military clash with NATO. The aim of this study is to analyze the immediate and potential challenges that Russia faces in the Baltic region, to forecast possible scenarios for the development of the situation, and to formulate some recommendations in terms of how Russia should act to minimize the damage, and in the long term, to find ways out.
To achieve this aim, elements of the retrospective method ...
Confiscation Estonian style: legal and political aspects of potential seizure of Russian assets in EU countries
The possible confiscation of Russian assets by Western countries is one of the serious challenges to modern international law and the system of international relations. Since the greater part of the frozen assets is under the jurisdiction of EU countries,...
The spread of the COVID-19 infection in Russia’s Baltic macro-region: internal differences
... Kaliningrad, Novgorod, Pskov, Murmansk, and the Republic of Karelia, as highlighted by Klemeshev et al.
Defining the Baltic macro-region as a geographical area having a common economic specialisation and similar physical and geographical conditions makes it possible to pose the question explored in this study: what were the specific characteristics of the spread of the COVID-19 infection in the Baltic region? Finding an answer to this question requires examining the internal differential of the spatial diffusion ...
The adaptation of Russian regions’ economies to the rupture of relations with Europe: the case of Baltic Sea ports
... region — Ust-Luga, Primorsk and Batareynaya Bay. This decision fundamentally changed the situation with the Baltic transit in favour of Russia, although the leadership and business of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania resisted this development in every possible way, trying to maintain their pricing and political influence on Russian-European trade relations. The construction of new large ports in the Gulf of Finland can be considered one of the main successes of Russian spatial policy in recent decades....
Expansionism in Poland’s strategic culture: historical retrospective and variations
... ambition to restrict unwanted processes and phenomena by increasing the cost of aggression and minor preventive operations (sorties, diversions, espionage) for any opponent, as well as in the aspiration to disorganise international relations as much as possible;
— limited power politics culture presupposes the actor’s negative judgement of the external environment, the aspiration to restrict negative processes and phenomena by identifying the main threat and the most dangerous actor, the ability ...
Reputation core of Russian authorities: the case of the regional level of executive power
... regions of the Russian Federation. The ultimate goal is to address a fundamental scientific problem — the development and substantiation of a methodology for studying the concept of the ‘reputation of Russia’s authorities’. This will make it possible to take an applied approach and determine ways of enhancing the potential for strengthening political confidence and unity between authorities and society.
This article also aims to identify the characteristics that make up the reputation core ...
Cross-border tourist mobility as seen by residents of the Karelian borderlands: COVID-19 restrictions
... mobility (border tourism) and point to spatial differences in the perception of the study phenomenon by the residents of border, interior and urban municipalities. When applied in practice, the proposed approach gives an opportunity to widen the range of possible administrative decisions and can serve as a tool of regional economic policy on tourism.
Transboundary tourist mobility is a staple component in the lives of people residing in the Karelian borderlands and, at the same time, a promising ...
Internet diffusion and interregional digital divide in Russia: trends, factors, and the influence of the pandemic
... 81 % of urban residents had access to high-speed Internet, and in rural areas only 65.8 %.<2> These differences aggravated after the introduction of quarantine measures during the pandemic [10].
The introduction of digital technologies made it possible to carry out many daily processes during the pandemic: distance learning, electronic public services, the delivery of goods, etc. Digital technologies have also become one of the factors for business adaptation due to the expansion of online ...
Sanctions risks and regional development: Russian case
... shocks to economies.<3> Therefore, the governments of most countries and regional authorities have begun to pay greater attention to economic security [1], [2]. Accordingly, it is necessary to understand the scale, direction and consequences of possible threats, their monitoring and mitigation, and the sanctions risks analysis is becoming a more relevant scientific topiс. At the same time, the 2020 pandemic showed that external shocks and restrictions are possible not only because of targeted ...
The modern economy of Russia’s Baltic regions in the municipal context
... economic development level and the response of their economies to recent crises) to create a more accurate picture of the situation in this macroregion. The second one is to demonstrate the possibilities for conducting such assessments using the broadest possible range of open statistical data. We use publicly available data to suggest ‘repeatable’ methodological approaches that any researcher can apply to study any subject of the Russian Federation.
The objects of the analysis are the Kaliningrad ...
Evaluating the efficiency of the research sector in Russian regions: a dynamic data envelopment analysis
... Moreover, the objective function reflects in one form or another the efficiency of objects, one by one, whilst the system of constraints includes data on all the objects [18]. All the objects are optimally assessed using available data, and this makes it possible to compare the objects, ranking them according to their capacity to transform resources into results.
A strength of DEA is the possibility to include in the analysis several outputs varying in scale and units of measurement. This makes the method ...
Migration distances in Russia: a demographic profile of migrants
... which has been demonstrated in a range of works starting with the 1938 book by Dorothy Thomas [13]. The characteristics that are most accessible for analysis are sex and age. Considering them as approximators of motives for migration events makes it possible to link the distance of migration and the dominant logic behind the process. Particularly, studies conducted on the US [14] and Sweden [7] have shown that long-distance migration is more common among younger and more educated individuals. It ...
‘What can be described can happen too…’: describing text semantics as a model structure of transworld relationships
... relationship between sentential complexes. To those ends, I employ the concepts of model, model structure, and centred world. The latter is a system of functions that correlate language expressions, the language expressions of a text, states of affairs (possible worlds) described by language expressions, and the contexts in which a text occurs. Existence in the worlds of the text correlates with the possibility of description. Presumably, the text is a twofold notion: it refers to a linear sequence of ...
University performance and regional development: the case of Russia’s North-West
... actions to improve individual functions or unbalanced indicators. A high level shows the importance of further promotion of the regional universities’ performance and achieving a balance in the functions’ performance. A leading level is the highest possible level of performance. It indicates the need to use various methods and tools to maintain it and disseminate it to other regions.
The proposed methodological tools allow us to assess the performance of each of the functions, to comprehensively ...
Translation as a journey through possible and impossible worlds
In this paper, translation is examined from the perspective of the semantics of possible worlds. The consequences of this viewpoint are explored, particularly in relation to the metaphor of traveling through possible and impossible worlds in translation practice. Special attention is given to cases where there are disparities between ...
France’s strategy in the Baltic region: military and political aspects
... well as of France’s intention, then clearly declared, to follow the path of a ‘Greater Europe’ together with Russia.<13> Later, in Poland (2020) Macron stressed the importance of defence industrial cooperation within the EU referring to the possible participation of Warsaw in the next-generation tank project (MGCS).<14> During his visits to Vilnius and Riga (2020), the French leader pointed out that like the entire European Union, France and the Baltic States faced common challenges ...
Territorial structure of inbound and domestic tourism in the Baltic States
... standpoint of the centre-periphery model of tourism space. The identification of core regions, less developed peripheral territories and intermediate semi-peripheral areas provides a rationale for spatial development strategies for tourism and makes it possible to increase the efficiency of tourism destination management by distinguishing between driver regions and territories in need of support.
State of research
A surge of scientific interest in tourism development in the Baltic States as a cohesive ...
The economy of Russian Baltic regions: development level and dynamics, structure and international trade partners
... countries of the macro-region. Russian Baltic regions have higher development rates compared to the national average. However, they experience difficulties in their economic development resulting from negative external factors. The article describes possible ways of overcoming these difficulties by improving the sectoral structure of the economy and diversifying international ties. In this context, the development of inter-regional cooperation and the formation of a spatially distributed territorial ...
An assessment of stubble buckwheat productivity in Ukraine in changing climate conditions
... calculations to obtain information on the agroclimatic conditions of the formation of four agroecological productivity categories for long-term annual average data (1986—2005) based on a climate change scenario for 2011—2030. The calculations made it possible to identify the areas of possible and economically feasible cultivation of buckwheat in Ukraine.
1. Гудзь В. П. Землеробство. Київ, 2010.
2. Смирнов В. А. Пожнивные культуры и климат. ...
Where and how meanings emerge
... connected by inversion and recursion relations and operations. We identify this system as a pragmasemantics. It also acts as an interface platform for correlation/transformation of intra-system semantic units and extralinguistic objects within a set of possible worlds. At the same time, this platform is endowed with the autopoietic potential to generate new operating interfaces systems, as well as textualized structures of operations and interpretations (instructions, memory, reframing). The generation ...
Priorities for the development of manufacturing industries in the Kaliningrad region
..., introduce governance of the territory by an international consortium, etc. One of the articles, on one hand, discusses the region’s participation in several European cooperation networks and, on the other, groundlessly depicts the territory as a possible tool for creating threats to other states of the Baltic Sea region (see [6] for a detailed analysis).
Polish researchers have made a noticeable contribution to the study of transboundary ties. Prof. Tadeusz Palmowski of the University of Gdansk ...
The Visegrad Group and the Baltic Assembly: coalitions within the EU as seen through Russian foreign policy
... questions. Does the activity of these sub-alliances open up opportunities for Russia to normalise bilateral relations with their member countries? Is membership in sub-alliances a neutral factor or will it further complicate bilateral relations? Does a possible dialogue with the V4 and BA/BCM have the potential of becoming a backup channel of Russia-EU communication?
Previous research on the topic
International cooperation is developing more and more often through integration associations. Within associations,...
Institutional approach to assessing the transition to a circular economy: the case of the Kaliningrad region
The article discusses possible reasons for the failure of Russia’s waste management industry reform and highlights the ownership blurring as a factor that may hinder the transition to a circular economy, which has been proposed as one of the outcomes of the reform. This ...
The impact of the food embargo on consumer preferences and cross-border practices in the Kaliningrad region
... transformed profoundly. New and many “old” domestic producers came into the market, the range of products imported from not embargoed countries expanded, and the available range of elite and dietary products changed in terms of price and/or quality. The possible explanations include low investment attractiveness of the food industry, staff shortage, etc. [10].
Berendeeva and Ratnikova have conducted a comparative study of the effects of changes in price and supply (substitution effects) [11]. They found ...
Geopolitical Security of Russia: Remarks on the Problem Statement
... hegemony in a world that was increasingly polarized and divided.
Following the demise of the Soviet Union, only one superpower remained in the international arena with a claim to world hegemony. The United States used to consider and still considers it possible to interfere in issues of not only global but also regional and local scale and nature. The Russian Federation retains the status of a great power, as institutionally it acts as a legal successor to the Soviet Union, being, for example, a member ...
Levels of context: how textual analysis becomes discourse analysis: the case of Internet lifestyle media
... contextual variables, (2) matching these to specific linguistic categories, and (3) operationalizing the former vis-à-vis the latter. Having posited this, the purpose of the article is twofold. In a more theoretical sense, the purpose is to outline one possible model of context each 'tier' of which is potentially related to certain linguistic categories and linguistic analytical toolkits. The suggested model has five tiers of contextual variables and two dimensions cutting through the five tiers. These ...
Imposture as a problem of reference: semiotics of the name in Boris Godunov
... hand, these features allow the author to offer an additional, logical and semantic dimension for the interpretation of the tragedy Boris Godunov. On the other hand, they significantly clarify the existing theories of the proper name, showing their possible non-trivial, and in some cases, problematic consequences. Simultaneously, the logical-semantic analysis makes it possible to identify the mechanisms of imposture and the communicative conditions for its success.
Arkannikova, M. S., ...
The ‘Route from the Varangians to the Greeks’: truth or fiction
... involves historians who draw on chronicles, archive materials and literary sources. Although relevant geographical studies focus on small territories and have a limited scope, only they can give a definitive answer to the question of whether it was possible to sail the rivers of the East European Plain between the Baltic and Black Seas in the 8th-11th centuries AD. Of particular importance are studies on the watersheds marking the principal legs of the route. If the watersheds were traversable, ...
Semio-poiesis: on the birth of the semiosphere from the biosphere
The article discusses a possible development of Yuri Lotman’s concept of semiosphere by supplementing it with the idea of semio-poiesis. Analysis of the processes of origination, evolution and functioning of the genetic code makes it possible to describe the main mechanisms ...
Kant and the Problem of Optimism: The Origin of the Debate
... scholars have rarely addressed the notion of optimism as it was interpreted by the Königsbergian philosopher in the mid-18th century. The notion originates from Leibniz’s Theodicy and from debates over whether the actual world is the best of all possible worlds. The first of a two-part series, this article studies the historical context in which appeared Kant’s 1759 lecture advertisement leaflet entitled An Attempt at Some Reflections on Optimism. The study describes the requirements of the ...
The ‘сool war’ in the Baltic Sea Region: consequences and future scenarios..
... regrouping has occurred in the region: there has been a stepping-up on the activities of the US and NATO, whereas the influence of EU institutions has decreased. A deep rift has developed between Russia and all other states in the region. There are five possible mid-term scenarios, ranging from outright confrontation to effective cooperation: an armed conflict, a dramatic aggravation of the current tensions without an armed conflict, the continuation of the ‘cool war’, the normalisation of relations,...
Steven Makin’s ontological argument: The concept of necessary exis¬ten¬ce of God
... the impossibility of acknowledging the predicate ‘to exist’ as real. Makin’s argument is not based on proving the presence of necessarily exemplified concepts rather than the necessary existing object. He argues that there is at least one (and possibly unique) such concept — Anselm’s famous "that than which none greater can be conceived".There are three key ideas, namely: 1) there are no reasons to consider that class of necessarily exemplified concepts as non-empty; 2) interchangeability ...
The Image of the World Revealed In Words: Ludwig Wittgenstein and The Iсonic Semiotics
... Wittgenstein's “Tractatus”. In the picture theory of language, iconicity is understood as a logical isomorphism between structures. This allows the author to expand the concept of iconicity — due to the use of verbal means, an image can denote both actual, possible and even non-existent entities. This makes it possible to consider a sign as not only a discrete and symbolic phenomenon based on an arbitrary connection between the signified and the signifier. Alternative semiotics can be based on Wittgenstein’s ...
Forecasting Actions of Baltic elites: A Scenario Approach
... the Baltics. However, a significant number of scenarios focusing on military aspects in the Baltics have recently been published. The author distinguishes between inertia, confrontation, and cooperation scenarios and examines their prerequisites and possible consequences. The scenarios are developed based on an analysis of geographic, economic, and political factors. The decisive factor is a state-controlled foreign policy, which is affected by the international situation as well as relations between ...
Key Directions of Sectoral and Spatial Changes in the Russian Industry
... integrated industrial complexes, which show higher efficiency in transit condiétions. The author presents a new approach to studying the structural transformation of industrial systems during the transition of the national economy, which will make it possible to identify major trends in national production. The article seeks to draw attention to the methodology of developing and implementing industrial policy and devising an algorithm of effective transition of Russian industries in the modern conditions ...
Geopolitical regionalisation of the Baltic area: the essence and historical dynamics
... (historical-geographical, civilizational, physiographical, factual, economic, etc.). The relationship between these concepts is more nuanced: a legal framework may exist for a structure that has never been implemented or has been put on hold; the opposite scenario is also possible. Moreover, a historical-cultural region can be defined legally but still lacks a governing body (see [5, p. 67, 71]).
Region-building relations allow dividing regions into two opposing categories:
1) regions of cooperation or integration ...
A new role of cooperation under economic sanctions as seen by residents of the Kaliningrad region
... when answering the question ‘If you do not participate in cooperation, then why not?’, residents of the Kaliningrad region express doubts about the economic efficiency of this form of economic activity, with 12.9 % choosing the option ‘it is not possible to earn well here’. Respondents also cite reasons such as a ‘low level of awareness’ (18.1 %) and ‘lack of interest’ (30.4 %).
The survey results also show that the region’s residents are more prone to participate in cooperatives ...
Open Use of Reason: Socrates and Kant
... shared with Kant who put forward the concept of the public and private use of reason. Today, the term “publicity” should be replaced by the more accurate term “openness.” Like publicity, openness implies accessibility of knowledge to the largest possible number of people. However, openness is a broader concept: it makes it possible both to explain the interconnection between the freedom of reason and its publicity advocated by Kant and to draw a demarcation line between Socrates and the Sophists ...
The border as a barrier and an incentive for the structural economic transformation of the Kaliningrad exclave
... by the Russian Government, this initiative paved the way for a more equal cooperation whilst securing a more generous programme budget. Dense networks of years-long partnerships had helped build a foundation of trust and understanding, which made it possible to downplay the barrier properties of the national border.
Despite the successes in overcoming path dependence, economic restructuring remained a major concern to the federal and regional authorities, along with a heavy dependence on external ...
Three Russian Baltic regions in the context of confrontation between Russia and the West
... its legitimate security interests. Russia was particularly opposed to Ukraine’s attempts to join NATO [18].
Following the commencement of the special military operation (SMO), by November 2022, the West viewed the “victory of Ukraine... as quite possible, provided that the West promptly supplies an adequate amount of military equipment and training” [19, p. 91]. It is precisely in this direction that the strategy was adopted.
As the special military operation prolonged, the recognition surfaced ...
“Conservative Enlightenment” as “Heroisation of the Present”
... Kant “maturity” carries not only biological but also socio-historical connotations. I show that in the modern world Kant’s idea of the social or even historical maturity of the modern human acquires serious problematisation which was shown to be possible and inevitable in the article “What Is Enlightenment?” (1784) and its notion of the historicity of enlightenment, i.e. the very strategy of modernity is possible only when humankind reaches a certain historical age. Using as a point of departure ...
The Swedish institute’s scholarship policy as a soft power instrument
... feedback was published on the SI website under the heading SI Stories.<6> These publications give an opportunity to assess the impact of a programme on a grantee and his or her professional development. In addition, the alumni feedback makes it possible to analyze his or her perception of Sweden, its values and the possible transfer of Swedish practices to the country of origin. This is a small-numbered category of publications since it requires the alumni’s consent and pre-moderation of the ...
Comparative analysis of the territorial support frame of settlement in coastal areas: the case of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad regions
... settlement systems in urbanised districts are well-known: growing cities devour landscapes, literally spreading over hundreds of square miles in all directions [11]. Although natural limitations do exist, there is some debate in the literature whether it is possible ‘to prod an agglomeration whose growth is not restricted by the sea or mountains into a better, desired direction’ [12, p. 19]. Further questions that require investigation include how this can be achieved without turning the entire area ...
The peaks and troughs of Russian-Estonian relations
... Russian Federation, reprints of reports from the Soviet, Russian and Estonian media and some other sources earlier unknown or familiar to a very narrow group of specialists in the field. Introducing these materials into scholarly discourse makes it possible to analyse the key trends in the evolution of bilateral relations and highlights earlier obscure details. It is only to be expected that Tambi, an acting diplomat with experience of working in Estonia, pays particular attention to the history ...
Estonian ‘Balticness’ as a social construct: meanings and contextual specifics
... States’. Estonian politicians also emphasise that in some respects (sometimes very specific ones, such as popular knowledge of English or internet connection quality), Estonia is not inferior to the Nordic countries. These achievements are opposed to the possible negative associations relating to ‘Soviet legacies’, for example, corruption [17, р. 192—193], [18, р. 356].
After independence, a prominent advocate of Estonia as a Northern European country was its minister of foreign affairs (1996—1998; ...
Language markers of terrorist-colored text and methods for their identification
A terrorist-colored text (T-text) can be understood as a piece of speech containing specific linguistic elements denoting a terrorist threat, according to the features of which it is possible to identify not only the socially dangerous content of the utterance, but also to evaluate the degree of its impact. The archive of the dataset of the extremist website “Kavkaz” banned in the Russian Federation, which contains several thousand ...
Transformation of the tourist and recreation sphere of the Russian-Belarusian border region within the pandemic consequences
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a serious challenge for the whole world. All sectors of the economy suffered damage to a certain degree, taking all possible measures to prevent the aggravation of the epidemiological situation. The tourism and recreation sector found itself among the most affected industries. This article is devoted to the urgent problems of transformation in the tourist and recreational ...
The Problem of Being: Kant and Heidegger
... Heidegger’s work Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics which Heidegger was writing intermittently during the period from 1927 to 1964. It deals not only with the ideas of the Critique of Pure Reason but also with Kant’s pre-critical work, The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God (1763), in which Kant explicitly addressed the question of being for the first time. Heidegger focuses on the transcendental power of imagination not only as the “common root” ...
Who is the one who uses the human language? On Alexsander Kravchenko's article "Language and the Nature of Humanity")
... search that infinitely expands the horizons of permissible views rather than the use of a system approach that is inadequate to the task. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the marginal manifestations of language as fully as possible to obtain truly universal results, which is impossible without clarifying the nature of man as the user of language. Human nature is in a very complex relationship with human biology in its anthropological understanding and the biology of Homo ...
Broken Facets of Ethical Universalism. Commentary on the Book Universality in Morality
... mechanisms of universalisation of individual maxims and norms from antiquity to modern ethical theories, represented above all by the analytical tradition in philosophy. Of great interest is the analysis of related phenomena in morality, which makes it possible to determine the causes and nature of the transformation of morality in different eras and the accompanying change in the terminological apparatus of absolute ethical universalism, considered to be the starting point in the analysis of key modern ...