2024 Issue №1

In recent years, social and economic development has been taking place in Russian regions amidst efforts to counter the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West. This article aims to analyse the general and specific features in the development of the Kaliningrad semi-exclave between 2017 and 2022 while considering the territory’s spatial heterogeneity. By employing a multi-scale approach and utilising data from Rosstat and Kaliningradstat, an evaluation is carried out of the economic and social dynamics of the region’s municipalities and the region as a whole, compared to the country’s similar territories. It is concluded that the region’s high economic openness and reliance on imports and transit in various industries had a distinctly negative effect on its development. In 2020, the major aggravating factor was the substantial proportion of ‘simple’ services in the structure of the economy, while in 2022, the ban on the imports of certain types of products into developed countries, particularly those of the metal industry, exacerbated the situation. Local gradients were predominately accounted for by the level of cross-border interactions and the specialisation of municipal economies. In different years, districts at risk included coastal ones catering for the demand from tourists and migrants and those specialising in the metal industry, meat and fish processing and furniture production. In general, the region’s social dynamics show a less dramatic decline than the economic dynamics, primarily due to the distribution of social payments to the population. While intended to support the population in the most economically affected areas, these measures did not yield a positive impact on the income convergence among the region’s municipalities.

The European migration crisis has brought scholarly attention to national migration policies, including those of the Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia — all of which border Russia. This study aims to identify the key features of these policies, considering both Russian interests and those of the EU. To this end, this article undertakes, for the first time, a comparative analysis of the Baltic States’ relevant strategic documents for the 2020s: Lithuania’s Strategy for Demography, Migration and Integration 2018—2030, Latvia’s Guidelines for the Development of a Cohesive and Civically Active Society 2021—2027 and Estonia’s Cohesive Estonia Strategy 2021—2030. It is concluded that the migration policy of these states does not align with the interests of either the EU, whose focus is on mitigating the consequences of the migration crisis, primarily as regards refugees from Africa and the Middle East, or Russia, whose principal concern is the Baltics’ Russophone population.

The army has traditionally played a prominent role in Sudan’s socioeconomic and political life. The events of April 2023 once again confirmed the country’s failure to establish stable political institutions since gaining independence. This study aims to examine the historical prerequisites and conditions that led Sudan into civil war and a humanitarian crisis, ultimately resulting in the degradation and collapse of the state. The article concludes that the armed forces are no longer the only successfully functioning institution in the country, as previously believed. As demonstrated in the research, the army has transformed from a guarantor of stability into a source of threats to national security. Furthermore, a ‘deep state’ has emerged in Sudan since independence in 1956. The military elite maintained complete control over the country for an extended period, acting solely in their interests, which inevitably impacted the socioeconomic situation in Sudan. The current events in the country are not an ethno-confessional conflict but a power struggle between two military formations: the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.