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Situations with uncertain developments and results are more often taking place in the world of politics. In this regard, the role of actors who are interested in the implementation of plans for peaceful conflict resolution and non-violence is becoming more urgent. The modern world is replete with situations in which a decision should be made only by qualified intermediaries (mediators), whose purpose is to resolve the conflict by the most effective and painless method. This article discusses the main aspects of the technology which is new for the political reality - political mediation as a vital means for solving complex inter-ethnic and interconfessional problems. The author attempts to identify general and specific characteristics of the conflict field that are peculiar for both international and inter-ethnic contradictions arising in the process of multilateral relations of nations with each other and between ethnic groups in multi-ethnic space. At this, the attention is focused on the fact that the conflicts arise out of the contradictions between the interests of these social organisms. The article provides the system of argumentation of the thesis that the use of mediation technologies helps to achieve the combination of the parties' autonomy and to guarantee a mutually beneficial result on a common ground. For this purpose the conflicting parties endow a third party with certain powers - the mediator, who is involved in order to look at the conflict from the side and help conflicting actors to get rid of excessive emotion and bias in a dispute. Thus, political mediation is a form of alternative expert and political dispute resolution and settlement, voluntarily elected by conflicting communities on the basis of their desire to reach agreement and political objectivity. (author's abstract)

The article reveals the peculiarities of the relationship between the Russian system of general education and the Russian Orthodox Church as a signifi cant social institution in a diffi cult period of political and economic transformations for Russia. The factors of the school's appeal to cooperation with the Church are substantiated, the mechanisms of formation and regulatory settlement of contractual relations, public assessment are revealed.

The article considers the prerequisites and problems of the evolution of Russian-Ukrainian relations in the period from 2014 to 2022. Geopolitical causes of the reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation in 2014, as well as the consequences of the mentioned event have been analyzed. The results of negotiations for settlement of the conflict in Ukraine within the framework of the Normandy format have been studied. It is emphasized that in the result of the failure to implement the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements the process of resolving the conflict in the South-East of Ukraine has reached a dead end. Moreover, the Ukrainian side, with the support of the states of the socalled collective West, has initiated the preparations to finish the conflict under consideration by military means. In addition, the transformation of the doctrinal documents that determined the Russian-Ukrainian relations has been analyzed. The active influence of the member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the foreign policy of Ukraine during the period under consideration is noted. The military and technical, reconnaissance, financial and diplomatic support provided to Ukraine by Western states, as well as the politics of Ukraine for implementation of the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism and Russophobia into society have been studied as the factors of transformation of Russian-Ukrainian relations, as well as the prerequisites for the Special Military Operation initiated by the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022.

The article analyses the changes caused by the Soviet plans to transform the countryside, considering a specific example of a settlement in the Tver (former Kalinin) region. In the 1970s the studied village of the Verkhnyaya Troitsa was classified as a "viable" one; it was also included in a small number of villages chosen as "experimental and demonstrative". Among the reasons for the close attention by the Soviet authorities was the fact that the village was a birthplace of M.I. Kalinin - the famous Soviet political figure. On the basis of statistical data, local history materials and our own field studies, a "portrait" of the Verkhnyaya Troitsa village was compiled for each of the four identified stages, i. e. pre-revolutionary, pre-war, late Soviet and modern. The dualistic consequences of the projects implemented during the Soviet period are shown. On the one hand, an ordinary village has become a large rural center; on the other hand, the remaining industrial and social facilities do not meet modern needs.

Toponyms are a complex system, the semantic and structural features of which reflect the cultural and historical peculiarities of the nation. The toponyms of Norfolk Island stand out from other toponyms of the English language due to the isolated geographical location of the island and its violent history. This article discusses in detail the extralinguistic factors that determine the semantic features of geographical names of Norfolk Island. The historical factors that influenced the creation of a significant number of place names include the fact that the settlement of Norfolk Island was founded as a British penal colony. Other factors include political and economic dependence on the UK, and later on Australia. It is noted that the most important among such factors is the motivation of the residents who inhabited Norfolk Island after its discovery by Captain J. Cook. The historical factors we are considering influence the formation of certain connotations of the toponyms of Norfolk Island and Australia. The article proposes a structural and semantic classification of toponyms of Australia and Oceania. The criteria that served as the basis for describing the classification include the presence of positive or negative stylistic coloring. It is noted that some names change their stylistic coloring. This phenomenon is an example of historical rehabilitation. Among the most common anthropogenic factors affecting the structure of toponyms, we have identified the influence of historical figures on the development of the island and the difficult living conditions of the first settlers. Such factors determine the choice of a toponym and are reflected in the presence or absence of its stylistic coloring.

This article presents the results of constructing and validating the "Normless anomie index" (NLAI) sociological test, designed to measure the level of anomie among Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking respondents. The theoretical validity of NLAI is based on an understanding of anomie that was proposed and detailed in the works of R. Merton. The content of the index is based on normless indicators presented in the articles of D. Dean, G. McCloskey and J. Shaar, as well as indicators presented in this article. The study is based on data from two surveys (November 2018, N = 600; April 2019, N = 600), which represent the adult population of Ukraine according to such parameters as age, gender, type of settlement and region of residence. For the purpose of empirical validation, the factor structure of the theoretical construct was analyzed (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis) and construct validity was confirmed based on indicators that describe respondents' political consciousness and their social well-being (correlation analysis). Three versions of NLAI were tested: 1) based on indicators claiming the existence of norms, as well as based on indicators claiming the opposite (survey conducted in 2018); 2) based on indicators claiming only the absence of norms, with more specific wording (survey conducted in 2019); 3) based on indicators claiming only the absence of norms, with more abstract wording (survey conducted in 2019). A conclusion is made about the higher quality of the second version of NLAI.
A classifier of answers to the NLAI indicators is proposed, which allows for categorizing respondents into four groups: anomic (predominance of answers which indicate the absence of norms), ambivalent (there are answers indicating both the absence of norms and their presence), undefined (answers prevail which indicate the absence of a clear position) and non-anomic (prevailing answers indicating the presence of norms).

This article, based on a European social survey for the year 2016, analyzes the attitudes of Russian and European citizens towards the influx of migrants into their respective countries, as well as towards the changes that said migrants bring with them. Despite the fact that Russia is among the leading countries in terms of migrant count, while remaining separated from those migration flows which bred the current European migrant crisis, it is among the top three nations with the most negative attitudes towards people migrating to their country, as well as in terms of evaluating the changes attributed to said migrants. In regards to migration inflow, the utmost negative assessments are prevalent in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia. Positive assessments were recorded in Iceland and Sweden. When it comes to changes introduced by migrants, the most negative assessments among all of the countries surveyed were again recorded in Hungary, Russia and the Czech Republic. The most tolerant countries in this regard turned out to be Scandinavian nations: Iceland, Sweden and Finland. Negative assessments in Hungary and the Czech Republic can be attributed to the fact that these nations act as migration transit points of sorts on the path towards the wealthiest of European states. They do not possess the resources necessary to handle accommodating and supporting transit migrants, as well as providing security for their own host populations. This article also cites the discussion on potential reasons for anti-migrant attitudes in foreign research. Among the main reasons highlighted are cultural factors (values and beliefs in the countries studied), economic (competition in the labor market, income level, GDP, the proportion of migrants among the general population), social-demographic (gender, age, education level, type of settlement), contextual factors (religion, political orientation, mass-media influence) etc. In Russia, aside from the aforementioned factors, the effect of low living standards and propagandistic coverage of the European migrant crisis in mass-media is also a consideration.

This article analyzes the connection between the socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, education level, type of settlement, marital status) and attitudes towards migrants of the Russian people. The authors point out that, throughout the course of a decade (2006-2016), over 60% of respondents were negatively assessing the changes occurring in our country due to immigrant presence, which actualizes the need to study the group which bears the utmost negative attitude, with it being considered a latent threat to the stability of society. Based on analyzing contemporary scientific research, we know that in most studies socio-demographic variables are used in regression models, though they are introduced into equations with no initial theoretical assumptions – so any results attained are not discussed, but merely acknowledged. Thus, we have identified that the results of studies of the connection between socio-demographic characteristics and respondents' attitudes towards migrants are controversial and largely dependent on factors of context (such as the country under examination, its cultural and historical specifics). Based on data from the European social survey (2018), while using a decision tree technique (CHAID), the connection between socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes towards migrants is analyzed with the goal of determining those groups of Russians that hold the most contempt for migrants. As it turns out, such a group is represented by women aged 60-69 with basic secondary education, residing in large cities or their suburbs. An assumption is made about this group of the population possibly being influenced by mass media, which is escalating an "immigration panic". Overall the analysis shows that the connection between socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes towards migrants is not a constant pattern. The results and vector of this connection change depending on the year when the study was conducted, on the context, the political situation, as well as other factors. The only exception being the connection between education level and attitude towards immigrants: in all of the examined studies a high level of education was invariably associated with a positive attitude towards migrants. In conclusion, the potential of qualitative methods was assessed – them being a viable option for further studying the topic – as well as the media's role in shaping the image of immigrants in the public mind.