Review:  
This article is dedicated to examination of the phenomenon of private military companies as a regional actor of security. Leaning on the analysis of international normative legal documents, the authors derive the definition of private military companies due to the fact that neither academic nor applied spheres have precise understanding of this phenomenon. The key research method is the structural and functional analysis, which allows authors considering the object of study from the perspective of various systems of actors. With the increased demand for private military services, private military companies gradually shift from the category of organizations serving military operations to the category of full-fledged independent military organizations that are capable of fulfilling the functions of regular army. For the past two decades, the market for private military services has grown from $ 55 billion to over $200 billion in 2010. The scientific novelty consists in comprehensive overview of various aspects and trends that take place in the market of private military services, as well as in classification of motives and consequences of usage of private military companies in armed missions. The authors discuss the question of international legal status of private military companies, provide practical examples of their activity with the prolonged consequences for regional systems of international relations, analyze the mechanisms of use of these companies in the current context, as well as synthesize the key factors of the increased demand for their services. The absence of regulation of the work of private military companies and ambiguous status of their employees in international law make it virtually impossible to impose international responsibility upon them.
 

Keywords: Middle East, international relations, regional subsystems, international law, armed groups, private military companies, Russia, USA, State of Israel, Germany

Review: The object of this research is the political system of the Republic of Belarus viewed in the context of sociopolitical conflict instigated by the results of presidential election of 2020. The Eurasian Economic Union faced a number of severe internal problems: besides the protests in Belarus, the parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan led to resignation of the incumbent president, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has escalated. Therefore, special attention is given to examination of the factors of sustainability of the political system their significance for Eurasian integration and Russia-Belarus bilateral relations. The authors assesses the consequences of the manifestations of crisis, and analyzes the mechanisms of resilience of the political system to the internal challenges. The history of establishment of the modern structure of political system of Belarus is analyzed. The formal institutional and factual functional relations are revealed. The author’s special contribution lies in the assessment of factors of sustainability of the political system of Belarus. Understanding of sustainability of political systems of regional nations is the cornerstone in risk assessment caused by integration and forecasting of the development of international relations in the region. The political system of Belarus, which has been formed throughout 26 years of presidency of A. G. Lukashenko, is currently (and so far successfully) being stress tested. The built vertical of executive power allowed to “amortize” the colossal level of tension emerged in the society after the announcement of voting results. It is determined that the consequences of crisis in Belarus are overall positive for Russia and EAEU. However, the risks of further destabilization of the political system and regime change pose a serious threat for the development of integration project.

Keywords: color revolutions, social riots, Structure of political power, Political institutes, Political conflicts, Presidential election, Belarus, Eurasian economic union, Eurasian integration, Poplitical systems

Review: The subject of this article is the policy and ruling techniques of the Ottoman Empire in Western Caucasus as a whole, and Abkhazia in particular, implemented due to expansion of military and economic presence of the Russian Empire in Caucasus in the early XIX century. Such methods include bringing local population (mostly representative of aristocracy – princes and noblemen) to the side of the Ottoman Empire for returning their dominance in the countries and cities (fortresses), considered by the Sublime Porte as the territories of their authority, and unlawfully annexed by the Russian Empire (namely the Principality of Abkhazia). This resulted in clash of interest of both superpowers that unfolded in Abkhazia and neighboring Circassia in the early XIX century. The scientific novelty consists in introduction into the scientific discourse of previously unpublished sources from the Ottoman State Archive of the President of the Republic of Turkey, as well as the Russian State Military-Historical Archive, which shed light on the methods of Ottoman control over the territories of Western Caucasus (Principality of Abkhazia, Circassia), as well as on the complicated questions regarding the clash of interests of the Russian and Ottoman empires in the region. The relevance of this work is substantiated by usage of both, Russian and Ottoman unpublished archival materials for describing the Ottoman ruling techniques in the region.

Keywords: Sukhum, conflict, Circassia, Abkhazia, The Ottoman empire, The Russian empire, The Western Caucasus, Novorossiysk, Anapa, The Caucasus