Abstract: The article is devoted to the problems caused by the nuclear disarmament of the Russian Federation and the USA. The goal of the study is to establish the character of influence of the Russian-American relations in the sphere of disarmament on the changes in traditional geopolitical views. The author analyzes changes in perception of nuclear weapons in the Cold War period, as well as specific features of influence of the American military doctrines and strategies on the foreign policy of the USA, and the acts of the USA towards the USSR and Russia. The author provides the fundamentals for the necessity of symmetrical response of the Russian Federation towards the foreign political threats provoked by the process of nuclear disarmament. Based upon the studies the author establishes the specific features of the Heartland transformation in the conditions of growing and diminishing nuclear disarmament. The classical geopolitics is being deformed by appearance and development of nuclear weapons. Traditional geopolitical rules for the “global chess desk” are complicated with a large number of exceptions, complicating the possibilities for the objective evaluations and forming high potential for the bifurcation points, where it is impossible to forecast the further development vector. Therefore, the geopolitical paradigm in the international relations loses its value, giving way to more objective paradigms, such as realism and liberalism. One of the consequences of disarmament is return to the primary geopolitical positions, where military actions are possible without preventive blows, capable of destroying the opponent.

Keywords: nuclear disarmament, Heartland, foreign policy, the USA, geopolitical paradigm, military doctrines of the USA, strategy of the USA, armaments race, destruction of the Soviet Union, strategic nuclear forces.

Abstract: This article is devoted to the studies of the relations between Russia and the NATO within the framework of European security. The topicality of the study is due to the fact that the object and immediate object of studies are regarded within the context of changing geopolitical situation in Europe from the moment of the break-up of the bipolar world and the fall of the USSR. Moreover, the cooperation between Russia and the NATO in the sphere of security influences the transformation of the NATO in the modern conditions of international order. Much attention is paid to cooperation between Russia and the NATO in the sphere of the NATO-Russia Council. Based on the article, the author makes a conclusion that currently the novel strategic nuances of the Western politics are modernized instruments regulating the distance of the USA, the NATO, and the EU from Russia. At the right moment these instruments tune the relations with Russia as being closer, in some cases more distance is provided. The meaning of this geopolitical game is to establish the secure distance between Russia and Europe and guarantee safety from Russian claims. It is also noted in the article that the raw material economy, dysfunctional state apparatus, and a great burden of social problems prevent Russia from efficient efforts necessary to change the attitude to it from the Western world. That is why it is hard for Russia to have equal partnerships with the Euro-Atlantic community in the sphere of security at the post-confrontation period.

Keywords: Russia, the NATO, the Euro-Atlantic security, the Russia-NATO Council, European security, security strategy, Europe, cooperation, the Cold War, national security concept.

Abstract: The ar ticle contains analysis of the topical issues regarding the normative fundamentals of the Customs Union, unsolved problems of unification of civil, criminal and administrative legislation, forming risks of violation of interests of some Member States of the Customs Union, the outf low of the Russian borderline businesses to the territories of other Member States of the Customs Union, having more attractive tax regime and customs administration conditions. The author reflect upon the unsolved problems of unification and allocation of the export customs duty and the disparity of clearings in these duties in favor of the Republics of Belarus and Kazakhstan. Taking into account Russia joining the WTO, development of global integration connections and the influence of negative factors influencing the development of integration processes within the Customs Union gain special value. That is why, in addition to the analysis of existing problems capable of causing disintegration processes in the territory of the Customs Union, one should take into consideration the perspectives for the Member States of the Customs Union joining the WTO. It is necessary to work on brining legislation of the Customs Union in compliance with the WTO standards and the criteria for the restrictive measures and measures taken in cases of balance of payment problems, provisions of the WTO treaties.

Keywords: economics, the Customs Union, legislation unification, united customs territory, non-payment of customs fees, allocation of export customs, disparity, shuttle business, tourist trade, scam schemes.

Abstract: The goal of the study in this article is establishing the role of the large-scale business in the formation of the regional policy of the Russian state. In order to achieve this aim, it is necessary to meet the immediate goals: to study institutional prerequisites for the largescale business political activities in the modern Russia; to evaluate the instruments of influence of business upon the regional politics and their practical application. The object of studies is regional policy of the Russian state, and the immediate object is large-scale business in Russia. Based upon the study, the author makes a conclusion that the raw-material vector of influence of the companies in the raw materials sector upon the regional politics shall remain until the structure of the Russian economy changes. The role of large-scale business in the formation of regional policy of the state towards the regions rich in raw materials in the future shall depend on the positions of political forces and the level of consolidation of Putin’s regime. Therefore, the regional strategies of the raw materials companies depend on both the foreign economic conjuncture and the domestic conjuncture. The forecast of the large-scale business role in the regional politics in the future is dependent upon the electoral cycles. The system of state capitalism, which is formed in the modern Russia, shall be further consolidated. The main practical results of the study may be found by bringing together three phenomena: the large scale business, state and raw materials regions, the federal regional policy being the focal point of their interests. Additionally, it shall be helpful for understanding the vectors for the further studies of the large — scale businesses role in the formation of regional politics and the its effects on the regions rich in raw materials.

Keywords: business, partnership, colonialism, economic politics, region, state, economics, security, resources, national riches.

Abstract: The need for the improvement and higher efficiency of the cardinal principles of information security management in the sphere of cloud computing requires a multi-aspect sphere of guarantees for the systemic quality. Application of the formalized structural synthesis methods and technologies for the systems of information security management in the cloud computing, providing for various levels of requirements hierarchy, could allow for the more efficient use of local technologies and automation qualities, as well as systemic manifestations. The empiric quality of tree models systemic structure provides a good opportunity. Special attention is paid to formation of the trees of objectives for the identification of security requirements in the cloud computing and formation of the basis for the formalized synthesis of security platforms in information and telecommunications systems, functioning based upon the cloud computing technologies in accordance with the established systemic criteria and the system development factor. Considering the lack of transparency in such spheres as service level agreements, and realistic supplier capabilities, existing in most cloud computing services, the prerequisites are formed for the formation of a novel method for the formation of the hybrid sphere of information security requirements for cloud computing.

Keywords: information security, cloud computing, cloud services, information security threats, analysis of information risks, management methods, information security requirements, business assets, tree of objectives, hybrid environment.

Abstract: Changing security contour and loss of internal control over the critical assets of organizations followed by the later migration of these assets to the cloud spheres made the problem of information cloud computing security management in the corporate system a top priority issue. All of the above requires the change in the traditional approaches to the information security guarantees and development of the novel methodological apparatus, allowing for higher efficiency of the IT resources and considerably lowering their costs via diversification of information streams in the organization and their migration to the cloud architecture. Much attention is paid to the topical information security problems and their possible solutions based on formation of the trees of objectives for the information security in the cloud computing environment. The authors offer a novel concept for the cloud computing environment security based upon the tree of objectives, allowing to take into account all of the critical processes in the sphere of information security management, and to take into consideration the terms of common responsibility and common obligations of the parties, the above-mentioned qualities shall allow the organizations to make decisions on the formation of information network based on the criterion of minimal infrastructure costs, while guaranteeing the necessary information security level.

Keywords: i n for mat ion secu r it y, cloud computing, cloud services, information security threats, tree of objectives, management methods, information security requirements, service provision model, counter-measures, business processes.

Abstract: The article presents the results of the analysis of the key problems and perspectives in the studies of the modern concepts, models, and technologies for the international conflict management. The author provides a classification of scientific approaches towards the studies of the role of technologies for the direct and indirect information and psychological influence in the sphere of international conflict management both in the interests of their complete or partial regulation, and in the interests of their political escalation.

Keywords: political science, national security, international conflict management, international relations, foreign policy, political conf licts, psychological technologies, psychological operations, information war, information policy.

Abstract: The term “energy security “is often used in discussions on the issues of energy industr y, global policy and inter national security. However, there is no consensus among the international scholars towards this term. The article includes an attempt to show that methodological ambiguity towards energy security is due to risks and challenges of various nature, appearing at various times in the sphere of establishing and implementation of energy policy of states. The author singles out the three key approaches or dimensions of energy security of states, being developed within the frameworks of various scientific disciplines in response to threats and challenges of principally different nature. These approaches provide for a rather complete picture of theoretical constructions regarding energy security. The works aimed to evaluate efficiency of state policy in the sphere of energy security tend to follow one or several main directions as described above. Due to the complicated character of existing energy system and their fast transformation the problems may not be efficiently studied and resolved within separate scientific disciplines. The author makes a conclusion that the further development of the theoretical constructions in this sphere should be achieved through the synthesis of achievements found in various approaches towards evaluation of state energy security, in order to make it more reliable, complex and verifiable.

Keywords: state administration, geopolitical transformations, energy strategy, national security, global energetic system, energy policy, energy security, energy supply security, security threats, diversification of risks.

Abstract: This article concerns several aspects of fighting corruption. First of all, it concerns a historic aspect of fighting corruption starting with the uprooting the “fief-office” system, which was popular in XVI–XVII centuries, and in fact was a lawful form for personal enrichment of persons holding offices. The author analyzes the legal measures taken by Tsar Peter the Great and Catherine the Great in fighting corruption. Characterizing the modern scale of corruption in Russia, the author pays attention to the spheres, which are new to corruption, such as unlawful privatization (impropriation) of state property; lobbying of oligarch interests, support and financing of political structure in exchange for the support of corrupt officials permeating government structures, etc. The author notes insufficiency and imperfections of anti-corruption legislation in these spheres, as well as failure to involve the general public in the expertise of legal acts. Secondly, the author studies the modern federal, regional and municipal legal acts against corruption, as well as acts on anti-corruption expertise of normative legal acts and their drafts. Based upon the analysis of the long-term municipal specialpurpose programs against corruption the author makes a conclusion that such programs should be adopted and their implementation should be controlled by the representative bodies. Thirdly, the author studies legal certainty as one of the key factors of corruption prevention. The author considers that the lack of clarity and gaps in the legislation serve as a “nutritive medium” for the corruption. She analyzes the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the European Court of Human Rights regarding violations of human and civil rights due to lack of legislative clarity. The lack of clarity in a legal norm allows for the unlimited discretion in its application and it inevitably leads to abuse of discretion.

Keywords: corruption, fighting, certainty, court, rights, expertise, power, legislation, positions, European.

Abstract: The authors of the article develop and discuss the conceptual model of cogitative-style determination of the argument. They provide the comparative cogitative style model, showing effect of cogitativestyle mobility, as well as specific features of the organization of psycholinguistic and psychosemantic studies, processing its results by the following methods of the sampling theory: with the use of contingency tables, with the use of χ2- Pearson criterion, with the dot-biserial coefficient of correlation of Pearson, univariate analysis of variance. The conclusions provided in the article were formed by the empirical research of interrelation between cogitative styles and features of the argumentation.

Keywords: cognition, cogitative style model, cogitative style specific features, Mann-Whitney U-test, dispersion analysis, chi^2 criterion, empiric frequencies, theoretical frequencies, contingency tables, modeling

Abstract: The modern geopolitical situation is rather unstable. Its main specific feature is that the borders separating modern states and nations are formed in the minds of people, separating the society into “us” and “them” based on belonging to certain national interests, values, ideological concepts and doctrines, models of political behavior, which are suitable for both continental and island states, rather than finding these borders in geographical boundaries of water and mountains ridges. In order to support these boundaries in the minds of the population the marker symbols are used in order to mark “us” and these markers are recognized by other “us” people, separating “us” from “them”. Sometimes these markers may be primitive, such as flowers (roses in Georgia, tulips in the Kazakhstan, the cornflowers in Belarus, cacti in Mexico, jasmine in Tunisia) in the hands of supporters of colored revolutions in the CIS territory, or bits of orange cloth in Ukraine, or white ribbons in Russia, the figs in Tunisia or Egypt, etc. Sometimes, more complicated symbols and symbolic constructions are used to distinguish “us” from “them”, such as democratization, followers of which wish to introduce the Western liberal values into the traditional communities at any costs, reviving the traditions of the Crusades, or the technical gadgets, such as iPhones and iPads, allowing to use social networks for the conflict mobilization of the society (“Twitter” revolution in Egypt in 2011, etc.). These markers may bring together large numbers of people living around the globe, in the territories of different states, having different landscapes and climatic zones, on the isles and continents, highlanders and the lowlanders. Thanks to the modern connection and transportation means the geographical borders become transparent and easily crossed, they are no more the natural boundaries, holding back the foreign political expansion of the leading world powers, claiming leadership in the modern world.

Keywords: international relations, foreign politics, Russia, geopolitics, political instability, international conflicts, state, nation, interests, values.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of the role of state in the formation of institutional mechanisms within investment policy. It is pointed out in the article, that the state being a foremost important political institution, established the norms and rules for the economic activity subjects. The author also analyzes forms and directions of state influence, and it is noted that investment management is implemented by the state via various legal and normative acts, defining and regulating various parts of this type of activity. It is noted in the article that the state interference into the investment process is necessary to overcome the unfavorable tendencies, lack of attractiveness to investors in some regions and economic branches, passive behavior of economic subjects in the sphere of investment activities. The article includes a definition of the investment policy of the state, including the purposive actions of the state in order to guarantee beneficial conditions for investment, efficient use of investment potential of the state, in order to raise the economic level and to deal with the issues of social and economic development.

Keywords: institutional sphere, investments, state, state control, investment policy, direct foreign investments, economic security, state regulation, administrative methods, mechanism for investment regulation.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of the situation in the space launching market and the possibility to involve the private investment funds for the development of a promising sector of space tourism. It is noted by the author that it shall facilitate development of tourism in general and partial revival of the space sector of economy. The author provide that the existing analogous space tourism services may be applied in the Russian space spheres. The author also states that it is possible that after a number of failures of the Scientific Production Center named after Khrunichev, which has been the main producer of the heavy spacelaunch vehicles till recently, the Rocket and Space Corporation “Energia” may return to this market. The author also supposes that provided that the tendency for the limited financing of the Russian space complex remains, the funds from commercial launchings shall allow to preserve the current potential and to develop new projects. All of the above in general allows to meet various demands of the market and forms the basis for the preservation of leading positions of Russia in the space launching market.

Keywords: national security, space, space tourism, investments into space sphere, spying complexes, tracing objects, RSC “Energia”, information domination, geo-politics, RSC “Proton”.

Abstract: The article concerns the correlation of the living standard as a national security category, quality of foodstuffs and healthcare or health. It is pointed out that due to dependency of health of the population upon the quality of foodstuffs, the category of “health” is related to the foodstuffs security. It is also noted that the quality health care presupposes quality of medical aid, which cannot be achieved without the quality of working force, that is why the author studies the quality markers of working force in the sphere of healthcare. It is noted in the article that the main goal in the sphere of managing working force in the sphere of healthcare is to form an efficient model for the improvement of healthcare quality (medical services) and the measures for its further improvement.

Keywords: health, health care, living standard, national security, working force, quality management, working potential, competition capability, human capital, qualification of the personnel.

Abstract: The author provides an interpretation and establishes grounds for the application of business monitoring in order to guarantee economic security and sustainable development of a federal autonomous higher education institution. The author analyzes the specific features of the higher education institutions as businesses, role and structure of multi-channel financing of businesses of such autonomous institutions in the modern social and economic conditions. Much attention is paid to the analysis of the system of markers, characterizing the efficiency of business, which may be used for business monitoring of a higher education institution. Currently there is no scientifically developed method for the evaluation of effect and efficiency of business in the autonomous higher education institutions. At the same time, most of such autonomous institutions use the methods developed for the budgetary institutions for evaluation of effect and efficiency of their entrepreneurial activities. These methods have a number of negative features, including, firstly, limited number of markers (scientific potential defined as share of funds for the scientific research and advanced development within the general amount of income of a higher education institutions from all of the financing sources; cadre potential; correlation of a medium monthly salary of professors and lecturers and a medium monthly salary in a constituent subject of the Russian Federation; financial guarantees and development of proprietary assets, defined as a share of funds from all of the financing sources, and used by a higher education institution for the sustenance and development of the proprietary assets); secondly, the orientation towards evaluation of budgetary institution efficiency, while an autonomous institution is not one of them. That is why a complex business monitoring is more efficient than the above-mentioned method.

Keywords: economics, business, autonomous higher education institution, business monitoring, sources of financing, efficiency, income, entrepreneurial activities, analysis, control.