2021 Issue №3

The article analyzes the role of a group of factors related to the determination of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian position in relation to each other, as well as to the international processes of European politics of the historical period of 1991–2014 in the formation of their foreign policy. The author establishes that the factor of European integration started to determine the policy of Baltic states towards their neighbours yet in times of their preparartion for the EU accession. The factor of Baltic positioning as “small states” contributed to the securitization of the western vectors of their foreign policy. And the factor of "Baltic unity" was largely based on stereotypes formed during the struggle for Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian independence and gradually lost its significance as they were integrating into the EU and the NATO.

The aim of the study is to define the role of organized crime in Russia over a major period in the 20th century, and analyze transformation that this criminal activity underwent. The article opens with the analysis of the development processes of the organized crime typical for the Soviet society. It is shown that in the Soviet period of history, organized crime, inheriting the previous organizational forms, acquired new features that reflected particular features of the new social and economic structure. The author identifies certain features of organized crime at different stages of the Soviet society. In particular, it is shown that the new economic policy witnessed new forms of organized criminal activity, identical to the Soviet type. It is also noted that this very period registered a certain interaction between individual representatives of the authorities, in particular, control bodies, and so-called new bourgeoisie. Such relations were supported with certain remuneration which became the factor for specific Soviet corruption to emerge. It is noted that even a fairly tough political and legal regime, which is associated with the Stalinism, did not overcome organized forms of criminal activity, though that period didn’t encourage any interaction between criminals and representatives of the authorities. A new stage in the organized crime is associated with the thaw that came in the 1950s, when many forms of organized crime revealed themselves.