The article offers a comprehensive analysis of the “Russian idea” phenomenon as a fundamental category of the Russian national apperception. The article seeks to propose a more specific definition of this concept going beyond the narrowly ethnic approach and treating it as a universal civilizational project. It explores both the sources of this universalism rooted in the Orthodoxy, and the unique features of Russian patriotism and the concept of a “god-bearing” people. The article identifies two interpretations of the Russian idea: a broad one that views it as an “ethnic keynote” and a system of cultural archetypes, and a narrow one that is the fruit of the conceptualizing endeavors of the leading Russian religious and philosophical thinkers. Particular emphasis is placed on the continuity of this line of thought in the 20th century, especially in the works of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The research concludes with demonstrating the relevance of the Russian idea in the early 21st century as a “philosophy of the future” that defines Russia’s choice of its historical path as a unique civilization in its own right.

In this article, the authors first propose a concept for commemorative strategic communication by government bodies in the context of the transactional mediatization of sociality, when the vector of spiritual guidelines, values, and collective national identity in relation to monuments and rituals is shifting. Commemorative strategic communication by government bodies represents a strategic long-term program. This program involves the use of communication tools to instill in national identity the memory of those who gave their lives for the freedom and independence of the Fatherland. Commemorative strategic communication fosters a sense of responsibility to fallen heroes and a desire to continue their work. Based on a comparative analysis of the verbal organization of memorial plaques honoring the heroes of the Special Military Operation, which serve as a means of slow communication between government and society, the authors demonstrate that slow communications, representing the analog, real world through which historical memory is reinforced and transmitted, provide a balance to the influence of the fast digital world.

The main purpose of this article is to prove that the democratic decline in the modern world and the rise of authoritarian populism are caused by the strengthening of a single neo-patrimonial trend that replaced the democratic “wave” of the 1990s. The reason for this trend is the crisis of Western liberal democracy, which is systemic in nature and is associated with the erosion of rational and legal institutions of the modern administrative state. Such attitudes determined the novelty and relevance of this study, in which the author carried out a comparative analysis of the political processes taking place today in the countries of the historical West and a number of states of the “nonWestern” world integrated into the international BRICS association. The empirical basis of the study was made up of data from the World Bank and other international organizations, as well as annual reports on the state of democracy in the world published by a number of research centers. As a result, the author came to the conclusion about the global nature of the modern neo-patrimonial “wave” that swept through various countries of the world at the beginning of the 21st century, regardless of the specifics of their political systems and the nature of political regimes.

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of agri-food policy in the Federative Republic of Brazil. With the help of historical analysis, the author found that the main problems in the country’s agricultural sector are its critical dependence on imports of special agricultural products (mineral fertilizers and pesticides), asymmetry in the structure of land ownership, deforestation, intoxication of the rural population and a high level of urbanization. Using a retrospective analysis and a comparative approach, the author verified that the “agri-food factor” plays a key role not only in the economic stability of Brazil, but also in the exchange rate stability of political regimes, whose legitimacy is based on an expanding portfolio of socially oriented programs funded through requisitioned “extractivist rent”. With the help of the method of historical and logical unity, the author determined the role of social movements in the process of institutionalization of the idea of food sovereignty. The author used the method of secondary data analysis and an institutional approach to classify official documents, identify executive authorities and describe programs that contribute to the implementation of the food sovereignty policy in the country. According to the results of the study, the author concludes that the trajectory of the food sovereignty policy “from below” is consistent, while the trajectory of the food sovereignty policy “from above” is inconsistent.

The article analyzes the role of the federal model of statehood in contemporary Nigeria’s response to global environmental shifts. The analysis demonstrates that federal systems, unlike unitary states, are theoretically capable of responding more flexibly to the effects of global warming. However, in the Nigerian case, this is hampered by a number of historical, cultural, and political obstacles. While attempting to overcome the deadly conflict between herders and farmers, which has escalated dramatically over the past quarter century due to global warming, the Federal Republic of Nigeria is failing to fully utilize the potential of federalism, and its political class continues to view it as a “zero-sum game” in which either the center or the regions benefit. The government’s inability to cope with this conflict not only splits the country along North-South lines, replicating the rift of the 1967–1970 civil war, but also gives rise to new socio-political problems, including the state’s inability to control its entire territory, the spread of unconventional socio-political practices, including mass banditry, jihadism, and other forms of extremism, and the emergence of new forms of corruption, including so-called neo-pastoralism. The study concludes that Nigeria could mitigate the stresses caused by global warming if its ruling class seriously addressed the improvement of its federal system. 

In this article, the author identifies two main lines of escalation in the Kosovo-Serbian conflict at the current stage. The first direction is defined by the author as a sequence of military-political actions punctuated by “operational pauses” (periods of silence for adjusting subsequent steps in controlled escalation) aimed at establishing control over Serbian municipalities in Kosovo – a trend observed since 2022. It is noted that, while controlled escalation at the present stage has not resulted in the permanent establishment of military-political control over these municipalities, it has allowed for the field-testing of modern approaches to exerting military-political pressure without direct combat engagement with Serbia (as the Serbian Armed Forces did not enter the territory of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo during the periods of escalation). The second major direction indicating the escalation of the conflict and, equally importantly, its future potential, is the development of the military-industrial complex and the army in Kosovo. In particular, the article highlights the opening of new military enterprises and the retraining of military personnel with NATO assistance. These developments pose a threat of the use of military force in the future (potentially realized through a rapid military operation to seize control of Serbian municipalities) and create political tension that hinders the establishment of a state-level dialogue between Serbs and Kosovars. In conclusion, the author attempts to define the key directions for a series of Serbian countermeasures, including the formation of new security frameworks aimed at preventing further destructive actions by the Kosovo authorities and the continued escalation of the conflict.

The assessment of global support for Russia amid the transformation of the international order has acquired relevance due to the changing configuration of political and economic ties, as well as the emergence of an alternative agenda promoted by the countries of the “Global South”. This study is aimed at identifying the dynamics of support for Russia during the period from 2014 to 2021, and further, after the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, up to 2024. The empirical basis is formed by the voting data of “Global South” countries in the UN General Assembly on resolutions initiated by Russia or related to its position.

The methodological foundation of the research is a specially developed Support Index, which makes it possible to quantitatively measure the degree of solidarity of states with Russian initiatives. This approach allowed the authors to distinguish four groups of countries: “low support”, “below-average support”, “above-average support”, and “high support”.
The analysis covered 112 states of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region. The results demonstrated heterogeneity of positions. While Syria, Eritrea, Mali, and Bolivia consistently vote in support of Russia, most of the Gulf states, India, China, and Brazil prefer a moderately neutral stance, combining restraint in voting with practical development of bilateral cooperation. African states are generally characterized by a combination of formal caution at the UN with deepening cooperation in energy, infrastructure, education, and extractive industries.
A comparative analysis of the two time periods (2014–2021 and 20222024) revealed an overall decline in formal indicators of support for Russia at the UN General Assembly after the start of the military operation in Ukraine. At the same time, actual relations often demonstrate the opposite trend, reflected in growing interest in multilateral formats (BRICS, SCO, regional associations) and efforts to reduce dependence on Western institutions. Thus, the study confirms that formal voting outcomes at the UN General Assembly do not fully reflect the real foreign policy priorities of the “Global South” countries, while their pragmatic interest in a multipolar world and alternative models of global development remains the key factor.

The article examines the international political communications of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. An analysis of the entire volume of joint statements by the CSTO’s statutory and working bodies, and the author’s personal experience in the Organization’s Secretariat allow us to conclude that this mechanism is the most important tool for foreign policy solidarity of the countries that are members of the regional organization for collective security in the post-Soviet space. The study highlights the main topics, periods of formation and development of the practice of joint statements, and examines the specifics of the lexical component of the CSTO political discourse. The active participation of all the statutory and working bodies of the association in the implementation of the mechanism under consideration is noted and it is emphasized that such a tool of collective communication is of particular interest to the media, experts, partners and other target audiences. Taking into account the relevance of the topics on which statements are being formed, their political level – heads of state, ministers of foreign affairs and defense, the collective position, the information becomes significant not only for the above-mentioned target audiences, but also for the general public.

The article examines the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020–2024 as a case of regional peacekeeping and an instrument for ensuring security in the post-Soviet space. The study focuses on the institutional effectiveness of the mission, analyzing its structure, legal framework, and interaction with the conflicting parties. A comprehensive approach is applied, including military, political-diplomatic, humanitarian, and international-legal criteria for assessing effectiveness. The theoretical section briefly outlines the historical background of the conflict and modern peacekeeping concepts, as well as approaches to evaluating the performance of various types of operations. The analytical part examines the activities of the Russian contingent deployed along the line of contact and the Lachin corridor, evaluating the achievement of tasks related to ceasefire enforcement, civilian protection, humanitarian coordination, and cooperation with international organizations. Limitations in institutional sustainability were identified, caused by the absence of an international mandate and political dependence on the parties involved. The findings have practical significance for improving regional peacekeeping mechanisms and planning future Russian operations in the post-Soviet space.

Institutionalization of social architecture and scientific study of this phenomenon are in the process of formation. The article deals with the potential of social architecture in implementing sectoral policies. The author’s purpose is to study the application of the possibilities of social architecture as a new direction of socio-political activity in the interethnic relations field in Russia. The author adheres to a project approach to the formation and implementation of state policy and relies on current expert discussions about the place and role of social architecture. On their basis, the author attempts to determine the range of tasks for which it could be used. Among them are interdisciplinary tasks that intersect with state cultural policy, state policy in the field of historical education and other sectoral policies. The author considers it appropriate to highlight the design of new formats of intergroup interethnic interaction, the construction of sustainable local communities, regional branding as specific areas of work. Particular attention is also paid to the limitations that should be taken into account when implementing social projects. These limitations are related to the nature of activities of authorities and the need to adapt the social architecture to existing management processes.

The work is devoted to the study of the structure of connections of illegal communities in the Telegram messenger within the Russian media space. The research is based on the network graph methodology and methods. Using social graphs allows you to identify nodes and edges in the information hub of prohibited content. The methodology allows us to form ideas about how the prohibited content is distributed: whether this process is centralized or decentralized, chaotic or controlled. The nature of the structure of mutual mentions between Telegram channels determines the extent to which an information bubble is created in thematic illegal resources and a network of influence on the media message and discourse of the national media space. In the context of the study, we are talking about negative illegal political discourse to mobilize users and involve them in the destabilization of the socio-political situation in the Russian Federation. When determining the nature of the dissemination of prohibited information and establishing an understanding of how unfriendly forces influence the media message and the minds of users, the state authorities of the Russian Federation can most effectively counteract digital risks and increase the number of deleted or blocked pieces of content. And, to start working not only with directive forms of countering prohibited information, but also using ways and methods of counter-discursive work.

The article is dedicated to the practices of forming the collective memory of scientific communities on the example of the I.V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy (currently the National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”). Based on the materials of the mass-circulation newspaper “Soviet Physicist” for 1967–1991 and the memoirs of the Institute’s employees, the author analyzes the process of forming the historical narrative about the role of Laboratory no. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the implementation of the Soviet atomic project and the development of traditions for celebrating the corresponding commemorative dates. The article also discusses the modern historical    and    educational    work    carried    out    at    the    Kurchatov    Institute.    The    findings indicate that scientific communities, along with others, are carriers of collective memory, which, when institutionalized, has a corporate character. 
The    passing    of    I.V.    Kurchatov    marked    the    beginning    of    the    historical    narrative formation of the Institute of Atomic Energy. Already at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, the Institute of Atomic Energy developed a number of commemorative rituals associated with specific dates (birthdays of I.V. Kurchatov and A.P. Alexandrov, the day of founding Laboratory no. 2, and the start of the first nuclear reactor, F-1), which were reflected in the pages of the newspaper “Soviet Physicist.” The tradition of celebrating these dates continued in the post-Soviet period, but the content was reinterpreted and expanded. Today, the collective memory of the Kurchatov Institute performs three functions: strengthening the collective identity, transmitting a certain set of values from one generation of employees to another, and ensuring the organization’s external positioning.