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This study attempts to detect papers originating from the Russia‐based paper mill 'International Publisher' LLC. A total of 1,063 offers to purchase co‐authorship on a fraudulent papers published from 2019 to mid‐2022 on the 123mi.ru website were analysed. This study identifies at least 451 papers that are potentially linked to the paper mill, including one preprint, a duplication paper and 16 republications of papers erroneously published in hijacked journals. Evidence of suspicious provenance from the paper mill is provided: matches in title, number of co‐authorship slots, year of publication, country of the journal, country of a co‐authors and similarities of abstracts. These problematic papers are co‐authored by scholars from at least 39 countries and are submitted to both predatory and reputable journals. This study also demonstrates collaboration anomalies in questionable papers and examines indicators of the Russia‐based paper mill. The value of co‐authorship slots offered by 'International Publisher' LLC from 2019 to 2021 is estimated at $6.5 million. Since this study only analysed a single paper mill, it is likely that the number of papers with forged authorship is much higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the tragedy in Ukraine deepens, it's clear that the world should end its dependency on Russian oil. It will be ironic, however, if nations disentangling themselves from this compromised energy source instead turn to another energy source with destructive impacts: harvesting and burning forest wood for fuel, which increases carbon emissions compared to fossil fuels, and degrades forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nguyen, O. T. H., Aksenov, I., Phan, N. T., & Sakulyeva, T. (2021). Russia's foreign policy priorities in the Asia‐Pacific region. Journal of Public Affairs, e2745. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2745. The above article, published online on 17 August 2021 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) has been retracted by agreement between the journal's Editor‐in‐Chief, Laura Corazza and Shaista Wasiuzzaman and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed following concerns regarding manipulation of the peer review and publishing process. Concerns were originally raised by a third party (1). Further investigation by the publisher has found manipulation of the peer review process, and overlapping text with other publications. The retraction has been agreed because the peer review of the article was compromised and there is unattributed overlap between this article and several other articles (2)(3). Abalkina, A. (2022). Publication and collaboration anomalies in academic papers originating from a paper mill: evidence from a Russia‐based paper mill https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.13322 Burdzik, T. (2019). Slowly but Surely: Russia's Foreign Policy in Southeast Asia https://russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics‐and‐comments/columns/asian‐kaleidoscope/slowly‐but‐surely‐russia‐s‐foreign‐policy‐in‐southeast‐asia/?sphrase%5fid=34631795 Rumer, E., Sokolsky, R., Vladicic, A. (2020). Russia in the Asia‐Pacific: Less Than Meets the Eye https://carnegieendowment.org/publications/82614 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the collection of papers from the first workshop on the habitability of the venusian cloud layer organized by the Roscosmos/IKI-NASA Joint Science Definition Team (JSDT) for Russia's Venera-D mission and hosted by the Space Research Institute in Moscow, Russia, during October 2–5, 2019. The collection also includes three papers that were developed independently of the workshop but are relevant to venusian cloud habitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review analyzes papers presented at the "Second International Kosygin Readings: Energy- and Resource-Efficient Environmentally Safe Technologies and Equipment," an International Scientific and Technical Symposium Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Kosygin State University of Russia, which was held as part of the International Kosygin Forum. These papers consider the fundamental principles of methods for intensifying basic processes in various industrial technologies, the scientific fundamentals of the development of energy- and resource-efficient chemical and other processes, innovative developments in this field, issues of the environmental safety of technological processes and equipment, effective systems for increasing technosphere safety, the theory and calculation of heat and mass transfer processes in technosphere protection systems, the issues of digitization as an intellectual and technological factor for increasing the energy and resource efficiency of chemical-manufacturing processes and plants, and the results of studies aimed at developing the theoretical fundamentals of energy- and resource-efficient industrial machinery and equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orthopteroidea is an ecologically diverse group of incompletely transformed insects that includes several insect orders similar in development and structure. Many species from Dermaptera, Orthoptera, Mantodea, and Blattodea are sensitive to anthropogenic influences and are indicators of the external environment. Some species cause damage to agriculture and forestry; others are inhabitants of human dwellings and pests of food supplies. The aim of this study is to describe fauna of some orders of Orthopteroidea in the Republic of Mordovia, in the central part of European Russia. This study was conducted in April–October 1971, 1984, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2004–2023. All possible habitats were studied using a variety of methods (entomological traps, pitfall traps, pan traps, etc.). An acoustic method of species identification was also used. For each observation, the coordinates of location, abundance, and dates were recorded. The dataset contains 4865 occurrences. In total, 16,644 specimens of Orthopteroidea were studied. The dataset contains 71 species including Dermaptera (4), Orthoptera (62), Mantodea (1), and Blattodea (4). Of these, 13 species are identified for the first time in the region; these mainly inhabit steppe areas. The presence of two Orthoptera species has not been confirmed yet during our studies; these species are noted in this paper according an old published paper. The biodiversity of Mordovia includes 73 species from four orders. The biology of numerous species, their seasonal dynamics, and some descriptions of biotopes and number of new species are described. Dataset:  https://doi.org/10.15468/cmr3yy. Dataset License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of the next stage of a comprehensive study concerning Russian state-legal doctrines in the 19th and early 20th centuries, taken in the triune of the external form of their expression: in dissertations, in monographs and in scientific papers of the periodical legal press. The authors analyzed the content and results of publication of monographs and the most famous papers published by prerevolutionary Russian political scientists on key aspects of the state (constitutional) law science. Data are presented on the main priority areas of research, poorly developed fields of public law science, the laws of genesis and evolution, respectively, of monographic and periodical state-legal doctrines. The methodology proposed for the identification, analysis and general theoretical evaluation of state-legal doctrines has every reason to be applied for obtaining comprehensive knowledge of other branch pre-revolutionary legal doctrines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was initially conciliatory. However, the current French President’ statements, Macron, gradually changed, suggesting a potential shift in France's stance. The French president recently suggested troops could be sent to Ukraine to fight the Russians, a move that could significantly impact the course of the war. Our paper aims to address this possibility. How feasible would this be from a military perspective? Second, are there any other relevant political actors that will support it? Third, why has Paris changed its position to such a radical stance? We start from the theoretical design of realist constructivism. Postcolonial theories and the concept of locked-in path dependence supported this research. The methods follow the path of historical synthesis, discourse analysis of key political actors, and text analysis of defense white papers. Quantitative military variables are used to understand France’s and the EU’s military-industrial complex capabilities and assess its potential. The collapse of France’s neocolonial empire in Africa and Russia’s growing influence in the region partially explains Macron’s discourse change. This is correlated with the need to follow a more independent European security policy and the worsening military situation in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aimed to study land reforms in the Russian Federation from the abolition of serfdom to the present time. The research was carried out by analyzing land and urban planning regulatory and legal acts, territorial planning, and municipal land management schemes used in constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The conducted retrospective analysis of land reforms in Russia revealed weaknesses and strengths and outlined prospects for further development of land relations. The conducted study showed that land reforms in Russia have not reached a successful conclusion. It had negative effects on agriculture and food security of the country. The paper provides recommendations with regard to the regulatory and scientific-methodological basis for a new system of land ownership and land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geopolitical positioning of Central Asia as the centre of the 'Eurasian Heartland' has been the subject of extensive debates in academic and policy circles over the last three decades. However, the mainstream geopolitical narratives on Central Asia tend to focus on grand-level geopolitical players and discourses, thereby reducing the region and its populations to passive entities without any agency. Not much has been said about how these grand-level narratives are reflected and operate within the micro-level, everyday spaces, relationships and experiences of ordinary people. This paper addresses this lacuna by examining the everyday, micro-level discourses and experiences of geopolitics amongst Uzbek migrant workers in Russia and their left-behind families in Uzbekistan – a form of 'everyday geopolitics'. The paper is based on a transnational ethnography of Uzbek migrant workers in Russia and in their home village in Uzbekistan, conducted between January 2014 and November 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent media ecologies are often characterized by their apparent excess and availability of information, in which elites have lost power to a multitude of citizen users. The 2010s, however, are marked by a new information battlespace, as governments, militaries and news organizations have arrested the initial chaotic free-for-all of the Internet. It was into this environment that the ‘Panama Papers’ were leaked in April 2016. We employ this story to illuminate some of the workings of information warfare in the contemporary Russian media ecology. We reveal the sophisticated gatekeeping work undertaken by a range of actors (state, journalists, news publics) in this ecology and their treatment of information across its historically established (television) and emergent (social) media forms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper explores the phenomenon of anonymous news channels on Russian Telegram, which have become increasingly popular in recent years. Drawing on 25 self-confrontation interviews, we answer the following questions: Do users trust anonymous news? If not, why do they keep using this information source? How does a restrictive socio-political context influence users' trust in alternative news sources? Our results show that, in Russia, the concept of trust is linked to the normative democratic understanding of journalistic functions. At the same time, many users believe that trust in media is not at all necessary and develop individual strategies to navigate a "chaos of narratives". The paper discusses Telegram's role in shaping trust or distrust in news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) are the economically and ecologically most important blood-sucking arthropod vectors that can transmit disease agents under temperate climate. In this group, the highest number of species (currently nearing 270) belongs to the genus Ixodes. For this review, more than 400 papers related to this genus in the context of Russia were checked for data on the host records, locations of collection, as well as ecology of assigned tick species. This monograph compensates for the lack of a similarly comprehensive English-language overview of Ixodes species in the region of Russia for nearly half century, and also makes a large set of data easily available for international readers, which is especially important if the original source is difficult to access from outside this country. In addition, the data from a significant number of papers on this topic available only in the Russian language are made accessible through this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany's role in global geopolitics is being renegotiated within current debates about future security architecture, weapons technology capabilities, and the spatiality of future battlefields. This paper introduces a critical geopolitics of technological futures approach and analyses weapons technology discourses through poststructuralist discourse theory and scholarship on technological expectations. It investigates German security policy documents' construction of future threat scenarios, technological visions, battlefields, and the material-technological consequences associated with these futures. It identifies how the geopolitical scenario of 'Westlessness' discursively shifted after Russia's war in Ukraine. It also considers the socio-technical imagination of 'hyperwar', which justifies the development of artificial intelligence-based weapons technologies. Such socio-technical imaginations construct desirable weapons and influence geopolitical leitmotifs. In turn, geopolitical imaginaries affect expectations of future weapons technologies and legitimate the acquisition of specific technologies. Therefore, this paper offers an approach to examining geopolitical power-knowledge constructions in relation to (new) technologies of killing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global energy crisis, which began in 2021 due to the extraordinary economic recovery after the pandemic and intensified after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has changed the conditions of energy management, paying more attention to energy efficiency. Natural gas prices have reached record levels and, consequently, so have electricity prices in some markets. Oil prices have reached their highest level since 2008. Higher energy prices have contributed to sharply increased inflation. Households are again becoming interested in buying coal as a source of heat. High energy and gas prices have pushed many families into poverty and forced some factories to cut production or even close. They have also slowed economic growth to the point where some countries are heading for a serious recession. Paradoxically, the negative effects of the energy crisis may accelerate the introduction of cleaner, sustainable, renewable energy such as wind and solar energy. The energy crisis is comparable to the oil crisis of the 1970s, when it contributed to significant advances in energy efficiency. The current crisis has highlighted the importance of investments in renewable energy resources and initiated the process of integrating regional markets, developing energy efficiency and promoting renewable energies. The aim of this article is to comprehensively explore the complex relationship between energy awareness, consumption patterns, and energy efficiency, with a focus on both individual consumers and industries, during the global energy crisis. This paper is based on a literature review, overarching policy documents, energy reports, and other secondary documents. The primary research method was the systematic literature review method, based on which the impact of the global energy crisis on energy efficiency was evaluated. This study emphasizes the diverse influences on energy awareness, ranging from economic factors to consumer preferences and environmental consciousness. The findings of the paper underscore the significant responsibility of industries in contributing to energy-saving efforts and the active role of consumers in the energy market. The responsibility of industries in contributing to energy efficiency is highlighted, with a call for a comprehensive approach that integrates energy-saving criteria into product development and corporate social responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before full‐scale war broke out in 2022, over 1 million Ukrainians resided legally in Poland. Within weeks of Russia's aggression, around 1.5 million new Ukrainian forced migrants had arrived, many of whom remain in Poland. As of September 2023, 970,000 Ukrainian refugees were still in Poland, where they enjoyed temporary protection status. This paper analyses data from a 2022 survey of both forcibly displaced and pre‐war Ukrainian migrants with the aim of establishing what measures are needed to facilitate the economic integration of the former group. The two cohorts differ in terms of gender, age, family status, ways of seeking employment, employment situation and aspirations. Although 66 per cent of respondents had completed tertiary education, only 30 per cent of the forcibly displaced group had Polish‐language skills. The paper recommends strategies for the provision of language education along with solutions to enable the labour market participation of this group and otherwise support their integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 26 May 2011, the Russian People's World Council issued a document entitled The Basic Values: The Fundaments of National Unity. The document, prepared by the Synodal Department for Church–Society Cooperation, provided a catalogue of 17 traditional values whose general framework was constituted by a combination of freedom, unity, patriotism, family, and devotion. At that time, the Moscow Patriarchate considered religious faith to be the foundation of traditional values and it continues to do so. The defence and promotion of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values were also central in the Russian National Security Strategy (2015); this was the case in the updated version of this document as well, put out in July 2021. Furthermore, they have been the core of the Moscow Patriarchate's participation in the Council of Europe and of Patriarch Kirill's speeches about the war in Ukraine. Finally, on 9 November 2022, The Foundations Of State Policy For The Preservation Of Spiritual And Moral Values was approved. This framework permits us to understand the strict interplay between the Church and the State in the Russian Federation and to see why it is important to refer to the concept of post-secularism when talking about the role of religion in post-Soviet Russia. Proceeding from the Abstract, the present paper aims to analyse this interplay in a specific sector of visual culture: the cinema and television industries. Manuel Castells highlighted the relevance of cultural values in the age of information and the connection between the values and social mobilization that follows it. He pointed out that the Internet has become a way to render this connection predominant, inevitably leading to the development of social movements and networks that have a religious basis. This is unquestionably true; surveys conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (OJSC «VCIOM») and by Nevafilm Research confirm that a high percentage of Russians watch films not only at the cinema or on television (especially the older generations) but also on the Internet (as far as the younger generations are concerned). The importance of this market is also confirmed by the success of the cinema and TV distributor Orthodox Encyclopaedia (2005); in the words of the philosopher Sergei Kravets, who, commenting on it during an interview published in 2006 by the website Sedmits.ru, declared that the expression "orthodox cinema" can be understood as a way to express Russian culture. He asserts that "the fact that today Orthodox films have begun to appear on the central TV channels testifies that Russian film producers and viewers have apparently begun to be aware of themselves as Orthodox, to feel that they are bearers of a special Orthodox culture. [..]". At the same time, consideration should be given to the importance of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Minister of Culture's condemnation of films such as Matilda or Monastery. In addition, it is important to consider that, according to a survey conducted in 2022 by the Levada Center, Russian people consider television the most reliable source of information (54%). The long-term implications of this tendency may have very important effects, not only in terms of its objectives but also in terms of the consideration that, after the beginning of the war, many Western film distributors withdrew their licenses from Russia. This paper will analyse "the effect of religion on the institutional system, the regulatory environment of the media and the public sphere" by studying the features of films and TV programs distributed by Orthodox Encyclopaedia, their relations with traditional values promoted both by the Kremlin and the Church, how these have contributed to strengthening the interplay between the Minister of Culture and the Moscow Patriarchate, and the impact this process has had on Russian society and Russia's relations with the European and Western World in the 2005–2022 period. A list of the films and TV programs being discussed will be provided, and then statements about the project and reviews of the serials and films will be analysed. The analysis will be conducted mainly through the official sites of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin and by browsing the Integrum database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scholarly literature on Russia's influence in Europe has so far mainly focused on Russia's influence activities, discussed either as 'disinformation' or 'soft power'. Less attention has been paid to understanding the agency of European audiences receptive to Russian narratives. Through discourse analysis of Norwegian media texts (February 2014 – December 2020) where authors or interviewees accepted or were prone to accept Crimea as part of Russia, this paper investigates into the arguments put forward by these constituencies. Why were commentators, representing various political affiliations, willing to accept Crimea as part of Russia, contrary to Norway's official position? The paper shows that the Norwegian commentators used many arguments coinciding with the official Russian ones put forward to legitimize the annexation, arguments informed by political realism, pragmatism, sovereignism and in some cases anti-Americanism. However, they also used arguments structured by the socio-political and historical Norwegian context. Constituencies abroad sharing opinions with official Russia may provide Russia with a certain soft power. In this case, the fact that these dissenting discourses in Norway represent fringes of the debate on the annexation rather than a strong united opposition to Norway's official stand, speaks quite clearly of the limited scope of this soft power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of humanitarian crises such as torrential rainfall, resulting floods, and landslides, rapid rescue operations are often imperative. However, owing to the inherent dangers and unpredictability of such circumstances, immediate on-site aid delivery is frequently unfeasible. In such challenging scenarios, mobile robot systems have emerged as the optimal solution for aiding search and rescue efforts. The 'Informational system for management of flood and landslide disaster areas using a distributed heterogeneous robotic team' project, initiated by the International e-ASIA Joint Research Program, united research teams from Japan, Russia, and Thailand, each contributing unique expertize and experience towards common objectives. Drawing upon our extensive theoretical and practical knowledge in disaster response research, we developed an integrated international operational framework for disaster site management, centered on dispersed, heterogeneous semi-autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Semi-Autonomous Rough Terrain Vehicles (UGVs), and Semi-Autonomous Surface Vehicles (USVs). This paper provides an overview of the methodologies, models, and algorithms employed throughout the successful three-year project conducted by the Thailand team while also directing interested readers to supplementary research papers for in-depth insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have observed the need to better understand the role of emotion in the issue of climate change, as well as to better convey the relationship between climate and other global crises. This article takes up these two positions, investigating the way social media facilitates affective connections between climate and other global risks. Using Twitter data from three global events – Covid, the 2020 U.S. presidential race, and the Russia–Ukraine war – the study examines how users connect climate change to each event. Placing these discussions in the context of online issue publics and ecocriticism, the paper examines the way users employ affect to connect these events to climate change. The paper uses a quantitatively driven qualitative approach, combining computational methods with a thematic analysis of affective expressions. Interestingly, sentiment was not universally negative, and the qualitative findings further suggest that users combine emotions in contradictory ways, expressed through the themes Weary Zealotry, The Hope–Disgust Dialectic, Climate as Proto-Disaster, Idiots and Enemies, and Global Solidarity. It is argued that a modified version of Beck's 'imagined communities of global risk' provides a framework for the role of affect in people's relationship to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Beetles in the superfamily Scarabaeoidea are one of the most important groups of Coleoptera. They are found in various ecosystems all over the world and belong to coprophagous, necrophagous, saproxylophagous, phyllophagous and rhizophagous types. The aim of the study is to describe the fauna and distribution of Scarabaeoidea in the Republic of Mordovia (central part of European Russia); (2) Methods: The study was conducted from 2003 to 2023. Collection material (specimens from 1972 and 1986) was also used. Specimens were collected using traditional Coleoptera collecting methods (manual collecting, light trap, collection of rotten remains and pitfall traps). For each observation, the coordinates, number of specimens and dates were recorded; (3) Results: The dataset contains 3198 occurrences. We examined 11,011 specimens of Scarabaeoidea. The dataset contains information on 88 species of Scarabaeoidea. Of these, five species (Aphodius pedellus, Nobius serotinus, Phaeaphodius rectus, Planolinus fasciatus and Onthophagus medius) are listed for the region for the first time. Another seven species are additionally known from others taken from the literature (but were not found during the present field survey); (4) Conclusions: Species diversity of Scarabaeoidea of Mordovia accounts for 95 species from 4 families (Geotrupidae, Trogidae, Lucanidae and Scarabaeidae). Ten species (Protaetia marmorata, Anoplotrupes stercorosus, Cetonia aurata, Protaetia cuprea volhyniensis, Oxythyrea funesta, Platycerus caraboides, Serica brunnea, Melolontha hippocastani, Trichius fasciatus and Protaetia fieberi) constitute the main population of Scarabaeoidea fauna given in the dataset. The species diversity of Scarabaeoidea of the Republic of Mordovia is roughly similar in number of species to that of neighboring or more northern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The best way to understand the environmental status of a certain region involves thorough non-target analysis, which will result in a list of pollutants under concern. Arkhangelsk (64° 32′ N 40° 32′ E, pop. ~ 344,000) is the largest city in the world to the north of the 60th parallel. Several industrial enterprises and the "cold finger" effect represent the major sources of air contamination in the city. Analysis of snow with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry allows detecting and quantifying the most hazardous volatile and semivolatile anthropogenic pollutants and estimating long-term air pollution. Target analysis, suspect screening, and non-target analysis of snow samples collected from ten sites within the city revealed the presence of several hundreds of organic compounds including 18 species from the US EPA list of priority pollutants. Fortunately, the levels of these compounds appeared to be much lower than the safe levels established in Russia. Phenol and dioctylphthalate could be considered as the pollutants of concern because their levels were about 20% of the safe thresholds. ChromaTOF® Tile, MetaboAnalyst software platform, and open-source software protocols were applied to process the obtained data. The obtained clusterization results of the samples were generally similar for various tools; however, each of them had certain peculiarities. Bis(2-ethylhexyl) hexanedioate, benzyl alcohol, phthalates, aniline, dinitrotoluenes, and fluoranthene showed the strongest influence on the clusterization of the studied samples. Possible sources of the major pollutants were proposed: car traffic and pulp and paper mills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of a study of the properties of Poletaevsky kaolin with the aim of using it in the ceramic industry. Based on the results of determining the chemical, mineral and granulometric composition. The mineral composition of Poletaevsky kaolin is kaolinite 80–85 wt %, muscovite and illite 10–15 wt %, quartz up to 10–15 wt %. It has been established that the Hinckley index for Poletaevsky kaolin is 0.68, compared to 1.38 for Glukhovetsky one. The ratio of highly ordered kaolinite to low ordered kaolinite for Poletaevsky kaolin is 22 : 78, for Glukhovetsky kaolin the ratio of highly ordered kaolinite to low-ordered kaolinite is 57 : 43. It was established that Poletaevsky kaolin can be used in the production of ceramic materials by plastic or semi-dry molding. The determined low content of high-ordered kaolinite and the insignificant content of particles less than 2 μm according to the results of laser diffraction analysis can lead to the production of an unstable slip. When firing samples of Poletaevsky kaolin, a minimum water absorption of 5.5 % was achieved at a firing temperature of 1450 °C. In this case, the resulting maximum apparent density was 2.17 g/cm3, the maximum mullite content was 38 %, and the maximum compressive strength was 32 MPa. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I will try to provide the justifications according to the laws in force and the needs of democratic policies and institutions to allow the creation of PMCs according to international rules and standards by applying the constitutional laws and with particular emphasis on freedom and human rights in the civil-military aspect. So the challenge and the journey remain in the aspect of the formation of the professional framework within the organizational structure of the PMC from the functionality of the state military structures. During the work, I will be able to identify why there is a demand and implementation of PMC by many democratic states and how much these are covered by laws, regulations, and international conventions, considering that we are dealing with direct intervention in the civil-military aspect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed palaeogeographical studies of the accumulative fan in the Serteyka River valley in W Russia and underlying biogenic deposits were carried out. The base of a representative core of biogenic sediments in the distal zone is dated to 1291 BC, while its top to 1631 AD. In this paper, palynological, plant macrofossils, Chironomide and Cladocera, geochemical, geochronological and sedimentological analysis were performed. Four phases of biogenic deposition were distinguished by pollen and geochemical analyses. Two of them coincide with the climatic fluctuation during Medieval Climate Anomaly and Little Ice Age. During the formation of the fan, overbank deposits were accumulated also, indicating numerous and intense floods, which are in line with the trend observed for other sites in this region. The accumulative fan is formed by lower, middle and upper deluvia and agricultural diamicton in its top. All units have specific sedimentological and geochemical features as well as low admixture of plant macrofossils. The beginning of the formation of this relief form dates back to the second half of the 17th century AD, and the end of the accumulation falls on the second half of the 18th century AD. Our work suggests that natural conditions had an impact on the formation and development of studied accumulative fan, however, the decisive factor causing the intensification of the slope processes were related with deforestation resulted from strong human impact, which was marked in palynological and macrofossils analyses (e.g. increase in the contribution of plants macrofossils related to agriculture). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper applies connectivity measures—membership status, contiguity, inverse distance, and power projection—to investigate North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) defense burden sharing at the operational or (defense spending) categorical levels (i.e., personnel, infrastructure, equipment, and operations and maintenance [O&M]) during the post‐Cold War era, 1991–2022. Alternative spatial weights, assigned to allies' operational‐based spillovers, indicate diverse free‐riding responses with the greatest free riding characterizing equipment, followed by O&M and then personnel outlays. Infrastructure spending, which does not permit much substitution among allies, is understandably characterized by the least inter‐ally free riding. After the Wales Summit and Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, there are marked changes to NATO free riding at the operational levels, with equipment spending displaying reduced free riding. Generally, there is little evidence of a positive reaction to increased Russian military expenditures; however, there is some enhanced operational spending by NATO allies nearest to Russia after 2014. Also, we estimate simultaneous spatial autoregressive models to gauge inter‐operational spending responses to the four kinds of spillovers, where we find interesting inter‐operational substitutions and complementarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work and religion are closely linked by historical ties and roots. In virtually the entire known world, social support for the needy was inspired by religious and spiritual ideas and dogmas. This did not pass for the Russian state in different periods of its political structure, which has its own national specifics. The paper provides rationale for the continuity of community service as a manifestation of advanced Russian political and philosophical ideas of 19th − 20th centuries. The study showed a more than twofold increase in the number of volunteers in all community-based organizations over the analyzed period of 2012–2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why did Serbia not impose sanctions against Russia following its aggression on Ukraine in February 2022? As a state seeking membership of the European Union (EU), Serbia's reluctance to join the sanction regime is puzzling. This paper draws from the ontological security literature to show how Serbia, as a political community, is divided between East and West, that is, between a vicarious attachment to Moscow and a relationship with Brussels driven primarily by the prospect of joining the benefits of membership of the EU. The problem of sanctions brought to the fore the conflicted identity of Serbia, showing how Belgrade's hedging in foreign policy reflects not only an attempt to extract concessions and advantages from both partners – the EU and Russia – but more fundamentally its efforts to come to terms with its liminal, ontologically insecure position within the international system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on religious populism are on the rise. They are located within the three main theoretical approaches of populism: ideational, performative, and strategic. Building on these three components, this paper proposes a comprehensive analysis by creating an ideal type of the relations between religion and populism. To that effect, it utilizes the relational paradigm of populism from Pierre Ostiguy in conjunction with Ernest Laclau's concept of sedimented practices and applies a genealogical method to analyse why and how religion plays a role in populist politics. This combination emphasises the fluidity of the interactions between religion and populism, their contingency on contextualised political cultures as well as on the often neglected transnational forms of religion. It focuses on two aspects of this role that have been less discussed: 1) the religious actions toward the political establishment 2) the transnational dimension of the populist politics based on religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how news images of refugees in the context of the war in Ukraine mobilize intergroup relations. A visual rhetorical analysis is used to examine the rhetorical strategies employed in news images of Ukrainian refugees in a mainstream Finnish national newspaper from February 25 to May 31, 2022. The data consisted of 465 images. The study constructed four humanizing visual rhetorical strategies based on the visual expression in news images: maternalizing, fragilizing, agonizing, and activizing. The rhetorical strategies constructed four subject positions for Ukrainian refugees: vulnerable victims, innocent victims, suffering Ukrainians, and persistent/resilient Ukrainians. All rhetorical strategies implicitly communicated the subject position of evil to Russia. The paper contributes to the current knowledge of the humanization of refugees in media discourse and the potential of media images to mobilize intergroup relations. Methodologically, the paper elaborates visual rhetorical analysis as a means of social psychological study of refugee discourse in the context of war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do a university leader's publication patterns change after appointment? Until now, few studies have examined whether administrative burden has a significant effect on a leader's publication patterns. This study seeks to evaluate changes in individual publication patterns in relation to academic productivity and increased administrative load. The main expectation is that rectors opt for collaboration instead of publishing single‐authored papers. The analysis of publication data on Russian rectors demonstrates that: (1) a rector's academic productivity is significantly positively related to the share of single‐authored papers and papers in inter‐organizational co‐authorship; (2) every additional year in office adds to the share of co‐authored papers and impedes a yearly increase in article numbers; and (3) previously high individual productivity has a mitigating effect on an increasing share of institutionally co‐authored papers. The results suggest that administrative burden induces changes in collaboration patterns of university leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that, in light of the changing warfare dynamics and tactics globally, the concept of non-kinetic warfare has increased the significance of advanced technology in a country's defense sector. Using instances from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, the chapter further elucidates the emergence of non-kinetic warfare capabilities, particularly cyber warfare, as a new battlefield game-changer. Additionally, drawing inspiration from the technological progress in cyber warfare on a global scale, it is my argument that India should prioritize the development of non-kinetic warfare capabilities, considering the cyber dangers it encounters due to the China-Pakistan Nexus. In this context, a comprehensive, multifaceted strategy to counter threats posed by low-cost and low-tech to high-cost and specialized technologies is paramount for India. Against this background, the paper has been divided into four sections. The first reviews the existing literature about non-kinetic warfare. The second section examines the growth of non-kinetic warfare capabilities, with a particular focus on cyber warfare as a new battlefield game-changer. This analysis draws upon examples derived from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine issue, specifically highlighting Russia's utilization of cyber and information warfare capabilities against Ukraine. Given the global strides in cyber warfare, the third section focuses on the cyber threats faced by India because of the China-Pakistan Nexus. The final section represents the main conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Conventional wisdom tells us that mediation without ripeness is a fool's errand (Zartman and Touval, 1985). What, then, is Türkiye's motivation for mediating the war in Ukraine in lieu of ripeness – and what can its behavior as a mediator tell us about that motivation? In pursuit of this question, this paper inductively analyzes Turkish mediation in the Ukraine war to unpack the relationship between a contextual (ripeness) and actor-level (motivation) variable. Of particular interest is the decision-making and behavior of third parties (like Türkiye in Ukraine) who elect to mediate highly complex conflicts in which ripeness is indiscernible. The purpose of this research is not to propose or test a causal relationship between obscured ripeness and mediation, but rather to examine mediation behavior in situations where ripeness is obscured. Design/methodology/approach: The impact of weaponized information on ripeness and third-party mediation is evaluated through an original, systematic and inductive case study analysis of Turkish mediation in the Russia–Ukraine war. As an intense theater of operations for information warfare for well over a decade, the war in Ukraine serves as an especially apt choice for an analysis of "obscured ripeness." Likewise, Türkiye's anomalous position as the only substantive source of mediation in the conflict lends significance to an empirical examination of its motivation and behavior as a mediator. Findings: This research reveals that the pervasive use of weaponized information in the Russia–Ukraine war has distorted and disordered the information environment, thereby obscuring the ability of third parties to determine if the conflict is or could be ripe for mediation. However, the condition of obscured ripeness that prevails in the conflict has not proven a deterrent for mediation by Türkiye, which, as the only mediator in the conflict, has used a transactional approach to mediation motivated by self-regarding interests and animated by a manipulative mediation strategy. In sum, this inductive analysis of Turkish mediation in Ukraine reveals that the use of weaponized information in a conflict indirectly selects on transactional mediation (and mediators). The significance of this finding is magnified by the widespread use of weaponized information in contemporary conflicts as well as the declining frequency of third-party mediation. Originality/value: There have been few, if any, systematic assessments in Turkish mediation of the Russia–Ukraine war, and none specifically concerned with the effects of weaponized information. Additionally, the paper proposes a typology of mediator motivation that is used to structure that assessment, while also introducing a new concept ("obscured ripeness") and linking that concept both to the existing literature on ripeness and to the use of weaponized information in contemporary armed conflicts. As such, this manuscript represents an important contribution both to the empirical and theoretical landscape with respect to the study of mediation and international conflict management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores a unique phenomenon of systemic companies and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in a weak institutional environment and extensive institutional voids that push them to take diverse obligations. The paper uses the data from 223 Russian public companies and employs conventional statistical methods to test hypotheses. Our results show that systemic companies are inclined to disclose information about their CSR activities, especially, in their social dimension due to their social obligations in the local markets and necessity to gain legitimacy in host markets. Moreover, Russian companies with international activities are more active in CSR disclosure than purely domestic ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents estimates of forest mortality from fires that occurred in the northern territories in the 21st century, based on the analysis of fire burning intensity obtained from MODIS instruments installed on satellites Terra and Aqua. A brief analysis of fire distribution and forest mortality resulting therefrom is also presented in the paper both by year and by different territories (countries). The analysis shows that from 2002 to 2021, 70 659 fires were registered in Zone 60 (the area north of 60° N) and 5997 fires were registered in Zone AC (the area north of the Arctic Circle). Moreover, 33 892 fires in Zone 60 were registered from 2002 to 2011 and 36 767 fires from 2012 to 2021; 2395 fires were registered in Zone AC from 2001 to 2011 and 3602 fires from 2012 to 2021. Between 2002 and 2021, 102 million ha of forest land were covered by fires in Zone 60 and 8 million ha in Zone AC. At the same time, more than 22 million ha of forests died in Zone 60 (they received the fifth grade of the average weighted category state in the final fire year), and over 2 million ha died in Zone AC. Over 2002–2011, 7 015 000 ha of forests died in Zone 60 (1.2 % of all forest vegetation in the zone; an average of 19.6% of the area affected by fire) and 15 372 000 ha of forests over 2012–2021 (2.6 and 23.3%, respectively); over 2002–2011, 641 thousand ha of forests died in Zone AC (2.8 and 23.7%, respectively) and 1 379 000 ha of forests over 2012–2021 (1.9 and 26.5%, respectively). The paper also presents information on forest death by territories (countries) in the analyzed zones. The presented data made it possible to draw the following preliminary conclusions: over recent decades, there have been no significant changes in the number of fires in Zone 60. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that, in 2019–2020, the number of fires in Zone AC increased drastically in Russia; in the second decade of the analyzed period, an increase in forest death from fires in the analyzed zones in Russia was observed; over the study period, no trends were observed in the ratio of the area of dead forests and total forest area in the analyzed countries; the average percentage of dead forests for the entire study period is comparable in Russia, the United States, and Canada, though it is significantly lower in Northern European countries; the same picture is observed in the ratio of dead forest area and fire affected area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acquisition of clandestine human sources – or agents – inside Russia and China likely remains the key priority for Western HUMINT agencies, and yet their ability to do this safely is quickly waning. This paper considers the utility of cyberspace for espionage recruitment in these two hard target states, and assesses its value as a potential solution to emerging surveillance threats. With the aid of history, this paper proposes that hard target espionage is fundamentally afflicted by a tradecraft paradox, one that will severely curtail the utility of cyberspace to agent recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the analysis of discursive shifts in the constructions of teachers' roles during the twentieth century in the Russian Federation, this paper argues that pedagogy becomes redefined based on the political elites' vision for the society's future. During the Soviet era, teachers were expected to play a key role in social transformation. In order to transform the world, they were expected to deploy humanistic pedagogy to help all students realise their potential. During the post-Soviet era, this vision was abandoned. As teachers were expected to fulfil the function of social control, they were called to adopt technocratic pedagogy that comprised principles of psychologisation, individualisation, pathologisation, and depoliticisation. Psychologisation of teachers' roles and pathologisation of diversity became deployed to "adapt students to the world" by addressing problems within students rather than in the society. The significance of this paper lies in demonstrating connections between shifting discourses of teachers' roles, pedagogy, and pursuit of social transformation or conservative social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russian private military company (PMC), the Wagner Group, went from being a public secret to openly fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia's war in Ukraine. By looking at Russian pro-government media discourses on PMCs, this paper argues that this development is largely made possible by a discursive shift, which happened before the war. Two basic discourses are found in the period leading up to the war – a discourse that denies the existence of Russian PMCs, and a discourse of normalization, which constructs PMCs as legitimate businesses and Russia as a great power. The two discourses previously kept the PMCs in a grey zone, allowing the Russian political elite deniability, while also taking credit for the foreign policy successes the PMCs achieved. However, this paper shows a discursive shift of recognizing PMCs as legitimate actors, which allowed for the Wagner Group to play a key role in Russia's war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the digitization of cultural heritage in Russian libraries, archives, and museums. In order to achieve the research goals, both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were adopted to analyze the current status of legislative principles related to digitization through the literature review and the circumstance of the latest projects related to digitization through the literature and website review. The results showed that these institutions seem quite successful where they provide a wide range of services for the users to access the digital collections. However, the main constraints on digitization within libraries, archives, and museums in Russia are connected with the scale of the work, dispersal of rare books throughout the country, and low level of document usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maritime transportation plays a vital role in global trade, and studying the resilience of the global maritime network is crucial for ensuring its sustainable development. Currently, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has garnered significant global attention. However, there is a lack of specific research on the impact of the conflict on maritime shipping, particularly the resilience of the global maritime network. This paper proposes a resilience assessment framework under the influence of significant events by combining complex network metrics and network performance indicators from the resilience triangle model. It quantitatively evaluates the resilience changes in the global maritime network before and after the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine conflict. The experiment utilizes real automatic identification system (AIS) maritime trajectory data to quantify and visualize the changes in global maritime traffic during a 20-day period before and after the conflict, constructing the global maritime network for resilience calculations. The research findings indicate the following changes occurred after the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Firstly, the global maritime industry experienced overall growth, with increased ship transportation between ports. Transportation in certain regions was negatively affected, with a significant decrease in ship activities in the Black Sea and Adriatic Sea areas. The positions of Russia and Ukraine in the world maritime industry noticeably declined. Secondly, the network connectivity, network size, and network density of the global maritime network significantly increased, indicating an enhanced network resilience. According to our quantitative results, from a topological perspective, we observed the following changes: network connectivity increased by 27.2%, network scale increased by 36.6%, network density increased by 32.4%, and network resilience increased by 18.6%. Thirdly, the global maritime network is characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity, and the impact of conflicts on the heterogeneity of the shipping network is not significant. Finally, the network exhibited a slower performance decline under random attacks, while deliberate attacks led to a sharp decline. Due to the adaptive nature of the maritime network, the resilience of the network improves in terms of its topology following the outbreak of conflicts. After conflict incidents, the rate of performance decline during simulated attacks is lower compared to the pre-conflict period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the implementation of neural network methods for predicting peak water levels during the period of spring ice drift by the example of the Sukhona, Northern Dvina, and Pechora rivers. All considered neural network methods have shown high efficiency according to the criteria recommended by the Hydrometcenter of Russia and surpassed regression dependencies in the skill of forecasts. When using the method of training artificial neural networks, the standard error of prediction is reduced by approximately 10–20% as compared with regression dependencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes an algorithm to differentiate leads from sea ice using the dual polarization synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from the Sentinel-1 satellite in an extrawide swath mode. The algorithm uses the polarimetric features of the sea surface signal obtained in the SAR images: the ratio between co- and cross-polarization. A technique is proposed for classifying the SAR images to identify discontinuities (cracks, leads) in drifting sea ice using the ratio and difference of polarizations together with texture features and the neural network implementation. The method was tested using the satellite data obtained over the Arctic seas in the Russian Federation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports results from a study of two new genetic types of diamond discovered in Kamchatka. These diamonds were formed under extra-mantle conditions, as can be inferred from the fact that there is no indication of post-crystallization annealing with the formation of aggregated nitrogen defects in them. The first of these types is defined by us as volcanic-atmoelectrogenic. This is formed directly in a volcanic ash-gas cloud due to deep-seated methane released by atmospheric electric discharges. The second genetic type of diamonds is formed at depth within a magmatic-pneumatolytic-hydrothermal ore deposit, and can be defined as the explosive-tuffisite type. The industrial potential of these types enables us to assert the discovery of a new diamondiferous province, i.e., the Kamchatka Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the dynamics of the governance of religious diversity in Southeastern and Central Eastern Europe and Russia provided in country studies in this special issue reveals that the countries of the region share several common tendencies but also exhibit significant divergences. This contribution compares the experiences of post-communist transition in religious diversity governance in the countries covered in the special issue. I assess the degree to which liberal regimes of religious diversity governance have been achieved or abandoned. I explore the explanatory factors behind the diversity of regimes in the region and the internal dynamics that these regimes have undergone throughout the post-communist period. I also compare policy issues related to the governance of religious diversity and the subsequent policy approaches adopted to tackle those challenges. The papers in this collection seek to explain a recent turn away from pro-diversity policy orientations by examining the influence of religious nationalism and the securitization of religion. In the conclusion, I argue for the need to consider additional factors related to post-communist transition in analyzing outcomes related to religious diversity governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antisemitism has been a persistent and growing prejudice for millenniums against the Jewish people. This paper offers a general theory of group hatred appliable to antisemitism and other religious or racial prejudices. Theories of prejudice tend either to postulate an internal psychic template of hatred that is projected or postulate a social origin of hatred that is internalized. Rather there is a dialectic where there is a reciprocal movement between internal and external. The tendency to hate and project is a part of the human psyche, here called internal racism. Anxieties which cannot be contained internally can be stabilized by large‐group identity. When internal racism cannot be contained or the external social groups are weak, the result is pathological large‐group formations. A distinction can be made between personal antisemitism in which the hatred is projected onto a known person and impersonal antisemitism in which hatred is projected into groups. A fairy tale by the brother's Grimm, "The Jew among Thorns" is used to illustrate a number of personal antisemitic attitudes. "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a forged document that appeared in pre‐revolutionary Russia, is used to illustrate impersonal antisemitism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost all Middle Eastern nations now struggle with malnutrition and allocate a significant portion of their oil earnings to food. In addition to already challenging and changing climate and water pressure, ongoing conflict and the war atmosphere, poverty, a lack of purchasing power, and pandemic diseases in the region all seem to play a role. However, the deepening of Russia's conflicts with Ukraine in recent years has made matters worse for the hungry in this fragile region and placed even self-sufficient nations in a precarious position. This paper addresses the Black Sea Grain Corridor Initiative, which was implemented through diplomatic measures hosted by Türkiye and guaranteed the secure transportation of Ukrainian grain to international markets. The study begins with a thorough discussion of the origins and effects of food insecurity in Middle Eastern countries. The second part examines the impact of this initiative on regional politics. To address the current issue, an integrated approach built on comprehension of cause-and-effect interactions has been implemented. The findings were gathered using a data collection technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the ways in which art and cultural expressions have helped to preserve the memory of the Ukrainian Revolution and how the Maidan Museum contributes to this effort. Specifically, the study explores the significance of the Maidan event in Ukraine’s national memory culture and how it is being integrated into the country’s historical narrative as part of the decommunization and decolonization processes. Additionally, the text examines how the politics of memory, as expressed through the museum’s performances and aesthetics, can serve as a tool of collective and national resistance. Ultimately, the article argues that the Maidan event is not fixed but rather dynamic, and Maidan memory plays a critical role in Ukraine’s ongoing transition away from a shared historical past with Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]