Suchergebnisse

The article explores masonic activities of businessman and politician A.I. Konovalov (1875-1948). A good deal of attention is paid to the verification of the fact of his joining the Masons, reasons to join the lodge and the character of his participation. It has been concluded that when he joined the lodge, Konovalov's intention was to create a united block opposed to the government. At the eve of the February Revolution, Russian freemasonry provided a neutral platform for the secret coordination of the actions of the opposition. However, the rejection of moral and ethical questions in favour of political agenda led to the situation when Russian masons were not recognized by freemasons in other countries. © 2017 Aquilo. All rights reserved.

This article presents the after-effect of the Ukrainian crises for the internal situation of the country, in particular a situation in the social and economic sphere and for the international relations in general. The author notes that the situation in Ukraine, which had turned into a conflict after the power shift in February, 2014, led the national economy to a deep decline, which cannot be overcome under Ukraine's own power. According to the researcher's opinion, the main problem of the implementation of Minsk agreements is the different approaches of the signed parties to the fulfillment of their obligations. The article emphasizes that the current Ukrainian crisis in many aspects turned out to be the consequence of the de facto unfinished "cold war". Mostly because of the West's efforts Ukraine had to sever the geopolitical and civilization ties with Russia and to choose the "Western project of development". This choice led the country to its current situation and highlighted an actuate question about the future of the Ukrainian nationhood. = Рассматриваются последствия мирового кризиса для внутреннего положения Украины, в частности состояния ее социально-экономической сферы, а также для международных отношений в целом. Отмечается, что после смены власти на Украине в феврале 2014 г. внутригосударственный конфликт привел экономику страны к глубокому упадку, выйти из которого без внешней помощи страна не в состоянии. По мнению исследователя, основная проблема в реализации минских договоренностей – это разные подходы подписавших их сторон к порядку исполнения своих обязательств. Подчеркивается, что современный украинский кризис во многом стал следствием де-факто неоконченной холодной войны. Во многом благодаря усилиям Запада Украине пришлось пойти на геополитический, а по сути, цивилизационный разрыв с Россией, сделав выбор в пользу «западного проекта развития», что и привело страну к сегодняшнему состоянию, при котором остро стоит вопрос о будущности украинской государственности.

Twenty-five years have passed since the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which led to the disruption of the regional check-and-balance system aimed at resolving national issues and political and socioeconomic contradictions. It also resulted in a number of armed conflicts, including those in the Chechen Republic, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Tajikistan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and later in the South-East of Ukraine. Immediately following the collapse of the USSR, key international actors paid special attention to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region while trying to secure own interests. This led to the further stratification of the CIS region. A "geopolitical pluralism" started to form there, marked by the fragmentation of nation-state sovereignty over the territory. The concept and policy of "geopolitical pluralism" as developed by Zbigniew Brzezinski meets the interests of the United States by making the CIS region more manageable, while at the same time making it more difficult for Russia to implement its own strategic tasks there. The key goal of Russia is the creation of an integrated economic and political union able to take a rightful place in the world. Only the development of deep and comprehensive integration with the CIS states can ensure the competitiveness of Russia's position in the world as well as the positions of its partners in the former Soviet space. The purpose of this article is to assess the level of geopolitical pluralism in the CIS space taking account of the membership of the CIS countries in international organizations and their voting on UN General Assembly resolutions. The study is based on the interconnection of quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis of international relations and world politics. During the past quarter century following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a regional system of international relations has formed in its place. Despite the fact that the CIS is a kind of linking element which unites most of the former Soviet republics, a certain competition between the new states has become the characteristic feature of the political relations in the region. The policy of the west (primarily the United States) became a kind of a branched, diversified strategy aimed at the phased development, transformation and fragmentation of the region. The diversity of foreign policy priorities among the CIS states and the presence of many actors in the region makes mutual understanding and good-neighbourliness between these countries difficult to achieve. To the contrary, this diversity seriously complicates and slows down the development of deep and comprehensive integration, making it more unstable and ineffective. © HSE, 1993-2018.

The article deals with the topic of how Russian liberal parties of the early twentieth century - the Party of the Constitutional Democrats (the Kadets), the Octobrist Party (the Octobrists) and the Progressive Party (the Progressives) - interpreted the range of issues associated with the foreign policy of the Russian Empire, such as imperialism, militarism, colonial policy, nationalism and pacifism. The authors hypothesize that the above-mentioned Russian liberal parties, despite all the differences in their political, economic and social views, adhered to the same foreign-policy approach which could be referred to as liberal imperialism. In particular, all three parties called on the Russian government to prepare for the intensive economic competition for new markets and trade flows, as well as for a potentially possible imperialist war between great European powers. According to the Kadets', Octobrists' and Progressives' concepts, Russia's foreign policy should be highly proactive and imperialistic, and should be based on a strong military presence both in Europe and in Asia. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The authors of the paper examine the problem of the participation of post-Soviet Ukraine in the global grain trade basing on a critical analysis and using extensive statistical data. Grain crops have traditionally occupied the most important place in the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine. Ever since Soviet times, the image of the "all-Union granary" has been entrenched in it, which was especially actively exploited in the last years of the existence of the USSR by nationalist elements, becoming a program for them in the fi ght against Moscow. In fact, the Ukrainian SSR only until the early 1930s was the main base for the production of marketable grain in the USSR. Subsequently, larger grain bases were formed in the RSFSR and KazSSR. After the start of the Special Military Operation, the thesis about Ukrainian grain as a central element of global food security again became a popular narrative and was used against the Russian Federation as part of a global information campaign. This strategic disinformation was intended to infl uence Russia's actions in the framework of the "grain deal". The purpose of the study is to fi nd an answer to the question of the extent to which the positions of the Ukrainian side actually correspond to realities. Based on the results of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the decisive role of Ukraine declared by offi cial Kiev and the West in the supply of grain to global markets is exaggerated. The bulk of the grain is not sent to those countries that are experiencing serious problems with hunger and are vitally dependent on Ukrainian supplies.

The article describes the integration processes that developed in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the 2000s, which culminated in the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The purpose of the article is to determine the main directions of the EAEU development through the prism of country preferences of the participants of this integration association: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. The specifics of the involvement of these countries in the Eurasian integration processes in the CIS help to understand better the scale of the EAEU's activities, its specifics, which is important for determining both the prospects for the development of the EAEU and the country dimension of Eurasian integration. The formation of the EAEU was preceded by the formation of the Customs Union (CU) and the Common Economic Space (CES), which generally corresponded to the algorithm that was present in world practice when creating large integration associations. The locomotives of the Eurasian integration process were initially Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which demonstrated the highest level of economic and political interaction in the CIS. In conclusion, the main prospects for the country development of the EAEU and Eurasian integration in general are shown. The EAEU promises certain benefits to the states that are part of such an association. In addition, there is a certain political context here – as a result of closer integration, the EAEU states will become less susceptible to crises and the emergence of conflict situations. Like any integration association, the EAEU faces many problems and challenges, both external and internal. It is not always possible to overcome them completely, but the countries-members of the Union are making significant efforts to this, which in the future should give positive results in strengthening this integration project in Eurasia.

The main directions of integration processes in the post-Soviet space are analyzed in the context of their significance for the countries of the region, defined in the article as Eurasia. The essential characteristic of the concepts of "Eurasianism" and "Eurasian integration" is given. Some scientific approaches to the definition of these concepts are also presented. Particular attention is paid to the two leading international structures in the Eurasia region – the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Today, the processes of implementing the ideas of Eurasianism and Eurasian integration are associated, first of all, with the development of the EAEU. But the whole picture looks inferior without taking into account the activities of the SCO. This organization aims to implement interaction between European and Asian states, and, therefore, the ideas that underlie Eurasian integration. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization claims to be actively involved in global affairs, and remains one of the most significant forces in the processes taking place in the Eurasian geopolitical space. The ideas of Eurasian integration that arose more than 100 years ago continue to be an integral part of economic and political rapprochement of the peoples of the former USSR. This process itself is not easy due to both external and internal factors. But in any case, it can be stated with confidence: the Eurasian states are trying to create integration associations in various formats, to solve issues of mutual interest with their help. And this process affects most of the states of the Eurasian continent. The future development of both individual states of Eurasia, and the entire continent as a whole, depends on results of the integration processes promoted within the framework of the EAEU and SCO. Acknowledgements. The article has been supported by a grant of the Russian Science Foundation. Project No. 19-18-00165 "Eurasian Ideology as Unifying for the EAEU and SCO Countries".