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Sociopolitical transformations of the countries of the post-socialist block are a relevant issue for research by historians specializing in international relations. Establishment of regional blocks, local integration aspects have become for countries of the former socialist block a certain stage on the way towards integration in the European Union. The authors use an example of the Visegrád Group to show the stage passed by Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the European integration process. ; Социально-политические трансформации стран постсоциалистического лагеря выступают актуальной проблематикой изучения историков-международников. Формирование региональных блоков, локальные интеграционные аспекты выступили для стран бывшего соцлагеря определенным этапом на пути интеграции в Европейский союз. Авторами на примере Вишеградской группы демонстрируется тот этап, который прошли Венгрия, Польша, Словакия и Чехия в процессе евроинтеграции.

The issue of searching for an effective regional balance of power in the South Caucasus through the prism of Russia's military and political interaction with Armenia and Azerbaian is examined. The experience of the USA carrying out similar policy in relation to these states is demonstrated. Based on the quantitative analysis of military-political relations between Moscow, Yerevan and Baku, the scale and forms of the cooperation are estimated. Positive and negative consequences of the official Moscow's "balancing" policy are reviewed. Difficulties that the Russian side has to face when implementing such a regional scenario of behavior are shown. The article says that for Russia, which represents itself as a backbone structural element in the CIS, the key to realizing its national interests is creation of a "good-neighbor belt" and counteraction to formation of the anti-Russian buffer zone in the post-Soviet space. This determines the foreign policy course of Moscow in the CIS region, where the Russian leadership strives to maintain a balance in the development of military cooperation with such regional rivals in the South Caucasus subregion as Armenia and Azerbaian. The authors come to a conclusion that Russia is balancing between two countries - Armenia and Azerbaian - in order to maintain its influence in the region and the balance of power between the sides. It is noted that Moscow tries to demonstrate the adherence to the principle of a dynamic balance of power maintenance in the South Caucasus. Unfortunately, Russia is not coherent in its political line in contrast to the USA. According to the authors, it is difficult for Russia to maintain the military and political parity between Armenia and Azerbaian only because of the fact that it is a major weapons supplier for these two countries. So, any destabilization between Yerevan and Baku is not good for Moscow, and it can lead to serious problems regarding its reputation and regional interests. However, despite the fact that Russia has a regional and global status, an alternative political line will not be reconsidered in the near future. Moscow acts according to its age-old experience in the regional policy. © 2018 Nauka Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Based on the results of geomorphologic surveys carried out in 2021-2022 with the involvement of published materials, an original largescale (from 1:25 000 to 1:100 000) description of relief of urban areas of the Republic of Abkhazia (Gagra, Pitsunda, Gudauta, Noviy Afon and Sukhum) was compiled, and unprec-edented general geomorphologic maps were prepared, with morphogenesis-based legends. According to their morphostructure position and geomorphologic structure, the cities are grouped as follows: 1) completely lying in the area of the coastalmarine relief (Pitsunda and Gudauta); 2) located mainly within the sea terraces and erosion-denudation hills (Sukhum and Gagra); 3) completely located in the low mountains with a predominance of strongly dissected structural-denudation, fluvial and slope relief (Noviy Afon). A field survey revealed about 300 areas with unfavorable and dangerous geomorphologic processes within the urban areas, 44% of them are in Sukhum, 26% in Gudauta, 11% in Gagra, 10% in Pitsunda, 9% in Noviy Afon. The leading geo-morphologic hazards in all spectra are suffusion, erosion and biogenic processes. A list of other processes in a spectrum is predetermined by the geomorphologic position of cities. The widest range, which in addition to the abovementioned processes, includes also karst, mudflows and landslide processes (i.e. the most dangerous ones), is typical for urban areas with a complex relief structure, abundant in steep slopes and located within a narrow strip separating the spurs of the Main Caucasian Range from the sea (Gagra, Noviy Afon). The risk of destruction of street infrastructure (roadbed, communications, etc.) by dangerous geomorphologic processes was qualitatively estimated and its high dependence on the geomorphologic position of a particular section of the city has been established. In particular, the distribution patterns of recorded unfavorable and dangerous geomorphologic processes made it possible to state that the most favorable conditions for the construction and operation of urban infrastructure and buildings in general are within the leveled surfaces of the Late Pleistocene marine terraces, as well as the upper levels of floodplain terraces in the valleys of large rivers. Other levels of relief have certain disadvantages that impede the development of territories. Thus, the construction on the surface of the Holocene marine terrace is possible only if the foundations are waterproofed and soil is dumped in the lower areas. The development of high sea terraces, erosion-denudation and structural-denudation relief is difficult because of the high density of erosion dissection.