The article considers scientific approaches to the study of foreign interference in national elections, which affects the internal and foreign policy of states, distorting the system of international relations. Based on the analysis of modern scientific literature the conclusion is made that despite the prevalence of foreign interference in elections, scientific knowledge is significantly delayed and cannot yet give the society and politicians a full scientific picture of what is happening. It is concluded that in the digital age, foreign electoral interference will become increasingly remote, election data will become increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks, the effectiveness of foreign interference will be facilitated by the shift to personalized and individualized tools, and the declining quality and veracity of information in new sources replacing traditional media. The response to these challenges from political science could be a new research agenda, the directions of which are defined in the article, and the implementation of which could reduce the negative effect of foreign electoral interference.

 

   Thinkers have used the term «institute» for centuries. At the same time, there was no more or less clear and uniform definition of that cat­egory for a long time. Even today there are unsolved oppositions in the area, and the dynamics of ideas is very high. The article deals with the interpretation and operationalization of one of the main concepts of political science - «po­litical institution». The relevance of the work is caused by insufficient meth­odological definiteness of the term in modern Russian political science. Such insufficiency makes it impossible to study the structure of the Russian political system and the process of its development and the issues that appear during the institutionalization of political life. The scientific novelty of the article can be traced in the establishment of general trends in evolution, the idea of institu­ tion and identification of the main steps of that process. The article considers and characterizes differences between the philosophical and scientific views on institutions. Base periods with their own specifics are also considered within each of them. It describes the influence that the basic approaches of classical political science (systematical, structural-functional, behavioral, etc.) had on the development of institutional research. The modern neo-institutional step of the development of ideas about institutions and the formation of a «new look» at it is considered separately and specifically. At the end of the article, the relevant definition of the main concept is provided.

   The research article is concerned with the mechanisms of cooperation between India and African countries in the latest historical period. The international support that India has provided to many African countries over the decades underscores the political commitment of the Indian leadership to speak on behalf of the nations of the global South. The government of Narendra Modi focuses on the common historical struggle of Indians and Africans against the colonial powers, as on the importance of developing cooperation in the politics, economy, energy, education, culture and humanitarian issues. The parties are interested in developing new approaches to environmental protection, and closely cooperate within the framework of the UN mechanism for sustainable development, actively participating in the formation and discussion of the climate agenda. Three successful Africa-India summits (in 2008, 2011 and 2015) showed a common interest in expanding the nature and areas of interaction. Moreover, India, experiencing an acute need for primary energy resources and minerals, sees in Africa not only a potential supplier of those resources, but also a capacious market for its products. In pursuit of all the interests mentioned, India, on the way of cooperation with African countries, often encounters the unpreparedness of African colleagues for direct dialogue, as well as opposition from other major players operating in the region. Among them, the UK and China play a key role. The authors come to the conclusion that at present India has a clear and comprehensive strategy for promoting its interests in Africa and considers the continent as a strategic one. At the same time, a large number of the variables associated with a specific process of interaction and regional development remain in the system of cooperation between India and African countries.

 

   Despite the extensive political and legal practice of regulating the status of a president who has ceased to perform his duties, that institution still remains insufficiently studied. On the basis of the author’s methodology the article solves the problem of the correlation between the formal status and informal influence of post-Soviet ex-presidents, and identifies ex-presidency models. It considers 33 ex-presidency cases in 12 post-Soviet states in the period from 1992 to 2022 and gives a quantitative assessment for each case according to two criteria (the level of institutionalization and the level of subjectivity). The author comes to the conclusion that out of 33 cases, only 30% are characterized by staying of the ex-president in politics, and of these, only in four cases, that staying did not lead to political persecution of the former president. Legal guarantees of maintaining the ex-president’s high role in the political process in practice do not guarantee the ex-president’s safety, since as a result of a change in the balance of power within the elite; they may be revised or canceled by the new president. At the same time, the degree of political regime competitiveness also does not affect the ex-president’s protection from prosecution. Weak legislative regulation of the ex-president’s status or its absence in competitive political regimes does not exclude that presidents whose term of office is coming to an end will try to extend them in other ways. Currently, only in Russia andTurkmenistan  elites have been able to ensure staying of ex-presidents in the political process without subjecting them to persecution. In all other states, the ex-presidency experience is either still absent or has an extremely negative character associated with the persecution of former leaders for political reasons. That is due to the fact that in most post-Soviet states, irrespective to the type of political regime, stable institutional practices of political competition, dialogue with opponents and guarantees of former presidents activities have not appeared.

   The article is concerned with the study of the ethnic parties influence on the political mobilization processes in the states of Western Europe. Ethnic parties are often viewed as institutions that increase ethnic tensions and conflicts, but still such parties function in many European countries. In political science, there is a discussion about how and under what conditions ethnic parties really pose a danger to the political stability. Ethno-political conflicts presuppose the presence of mobilization of ethnic groups. The article proves that ethnic parties drastically increase ethno-political mobilization. Ethnic parties are interested in such mobilization and form the mobilization infrastructure. A comparative analysis of ethno-political parties of Belgium, Great Britain and Spain showed that ethno-political mobilization in them differs significantly. If in Spain the protests in Catalonia threatened not only national political stability, but also the security of citizens, then in Belgium and the UK, ethnic parties limited themselves to mobilizing citizens for electoral political participation.

   The article is concerned with a seemingly unnoticeable phenomenon of the regional political process in the Republic of Dagestan: territoriality. It would seem, that Russian and foreign researchers are aware of that characteristic of the North Caucasus regions. However, the factor of territoriality is often ignored not only in research, but also in real political practice. When it comes to the conflict-geneity of political relations, social, economic, and cultural-historical factors come to the fore. They are indeed more voluminous in their content and impact than territoriality. The authors draw attention to the fact that in the Dagestan reality territoriality is a link in the genesis of conflict. At the local level, diverse contradictions of a social, economic, and cultural-historical nature are tightly knotted. Guided by the principles of social-cultural approach and based on a broad interpretation of ethnoterritorial conflict, the authors show the importance of the territoriality factor not only for land relations in local ethnic territory and on their borders, but also for the content of regional policy in Dagestan in general. The article provides a retrospective of the main stages in the formation and reproduction of ethnoterritorial communities. Some cases of ethnoterritorial conflicts in recent years demonstrate the danger of underestimating the territoriality factor in local conflict management. The authors conclude that a scientifically substantiated federal policy of regional development in the North Caucasus must be developed, in which territoriality is understood as a central element of the state governance.

   The modern digital development of society dictates that political parties not only engage in daily activities that are traditionally characteristic of them, but also develop their digital presence in the Internet space. The article discusses the image of political parties in Russia within the framework of the digital society development and proves the need for them to use their official accounts in social networks. It also explains the relationship between the further promotion of political parties among the population of Russia and the active maintenance of their party publics in social networks. The paper argues that such activities should help attract new party members to their ranks or allow parties to improve their image. The article was written based on the results of a studying the party telegram channels and accounts on the VKontakte social network. A number of comments are made on the further formation of the political parties image in the context of digitalization. The findings of the study can be used to further study the image of political parties in the digital development of Russian society, and can also be used by political parties, public relations specialists in terms of developing and promoting party accounts in social networks.

   The article examines the issues associated with the peculiarities of image strategies of leaders of systemic political parties in modern Russia. Particular attention is paid to the statement that elections play a crucial role in any modern state that calls its political regime democratic. The Russian Federation is among the democratic models of the state is the Russian Federation, which constitutionally enshrines electoral procedures for the election of power institutions. At the same time, it is justified that electoral processes can take place in countries with other political regimes, and most often occur in conditions of limited freedom, police pressure, threats to employees from the employer, fear of the population against repressive actions of the state, and so on. Holding elections in such conditions takes on a decorative nature and cannot be recognized as legitimate. The authors suggest that the realization of the possibility of determining popular will depends on many factors, the main of which are the high level of political culture of citizens and a strong civil society capable of protecting its rights. That is why the holding of free, competitive and regular elections is the most important aspect of the socio-political life of the population of democratic countries. They also describe specifics in proclamations of the political organizations leaders, the goals they set to solve issues in the country and society, the creation and manipulation of certain images forming socio-psychological conditions that can shape a certain information space and evoke an emotional response that encourages the voter to electoral action.

   The article deals with the events of the July crisis, Nicolas the II’s actions, the leading diplomats’ measures to prevent the turn of the crisis into a full-scale war; the paper also discusses the reasons according to which a compromise proved to be impossible. A large number of the documents published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation allow us to restore and thoroughly analyze the actions of the Russian side, of the diplomats of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Serbia.