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The redundancy, intensity and formalization of paperwork in education have become its painful feature: educational bureaucracy and evaluation mania ignore the social mission of education, paper pressure and paper genocide are barriers to its progress and manageability. The article presents the results of an interregional study of managerial information flows in the Russian education system: it analyzes data of representative surveys and timing of the workloads of the main personnel groups, expert assessments, document flows in the education system in the perspective of the theory of bureaucracy and institutional functions of education. Thus, the redundancy of information flows in the school system exceeds the functional needs of management by more than 20 times. The number of the types of documents written by the teacher reaches 95 on average, and their labor intensity is comparable to teaching. Most of the collected information is not reliable and is not used for educational purposes; it is rather a means to ensure the managerial omnipotence and excess personnel. The key source of paper pressure and paper genocide in the education system is the management strategy that ignores the social mission of education and its social efficiency. This strategy expresses bureaucratic distrust to educators and to the possibilities of public-private administration. Practices based on this strategy lead to irrelevant, unreliable and ineffective information flows, deformed social relations and professional culture of teachers, their widespread burnout and outflow from education. The identified management strategy is a dead end for the Russian education system and an obstacle for preserving its potential and development under the growing global competition.

Round table debate “Transformation of political values in the EU: pros and cons” was held on February 13 2017 on the Faculty of the humanities and social sciences of Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University). The “Round-table” debate has been realized in the frame of the project “Transformation of the social and political values: the EU practice” (project number: 575361-EPP-1-2016-1-RU-EPPJMO-MODULE), Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Actions. Jean Monnet Module “Transformation of the social and political values: the EU practice”.

March 3, 2017 the Department of comparative politics, faculty of Humanities and social sciences held an international “Round-table” conference “The new US administration: perspectives for Russia”, which discussed issues related to the functioning of the new U.S. Administration after the election of Donald Trump.

The paper dedicated to the “round-table” conference “Migration crisis in the EU and rethinking of multiculturalism: the European question and the German answer” which was organized by the Department of comparative politics of the Peoples` Friendship University of Russia (PFUR) and held on October 9 2015 on the faculty of the humanities and social sciences. Among the participants of the conference were the lecturers and the students of the PFUR.

The paper comprises the materials of the “round-table” “Within sanctions regime: problems and perspectives of Russian economic and political development” which was organized by the chair of the comparative politics of the Peoples` Friendship University of Russia (PFUR) and took place on February 20. 2016 on the faculty of the humanities and social sciences. Among the questions discussed within the “round table” were economic and political aftermaths of the sanctions imposed on Russia by the West and Russian countersanctions against the EU, USA and the further perspectives of Russian economic and political development, cooperation with the West. Among the participants of the “round-table” were the lecturers and the students of the political department of the PFUR, the students of the faculty of applied political sciences of the National Research University of Higher School of Economics as well as political experts.

On 7 May of 2015 the Department of Comparative Politics of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia held a “Round-table” Conference commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War under the title: “Memory of the war and war on memory: historical lessons of the past and political challenges of the present”.

The article analyzes actual methodical research areas in Russian as a foreign language. The author bases on Doctor and Candidate dissertation papers defended at the chair of the Russian language and methods of its teaching over the past 10 years.

The paper dedicated to the “round-table” conference “Public-Private Partnership” which was organized by the Department of the comparative politics of the Peoples` Friendship University of Russia (PFUR) and held on December 1 2014 on the faculty of the humanities and social sciences. Among the participants of the conference were the lecturers and the students of the political department of the PFUR.

The author considers three periods in creating Russian textbooks for foreign students: a classic paper, an electronic and a smart textbook. The author describes their specific features. The author presents his own concept of smart Russian textbooks for foreign students and their place and functions in education.

The period between the publication of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and League of Nations mandates official assignment to Great Britain in 1922 was not lengthy, but highly eventful. All this time England was maneuvring between the Jewish and the Arab national movements, which also gradually formed their own demands and objectives. The problem was, pursuing British interests was possible through maneuvring only, as support of just one local force was not quite strategically advantageous. Britains official commitment to the Balfour Declaration remained at the core of its policy, however it could not completely ignore the demands of the Arab polutaion of Palestine. Although there were quite a number of British administrators and imperial politicians, who were sympathetic towards the Zionist cause and thus were ready to meet their requests to a certain extent, adherence to the British Middle East interests remained crucial to them. The idea of a Jewish national home (not a state, though) in Palestine did not come into contradiction with the general policy of Great Britain in the Middle East: it was rather its integral part. At the same time implementing the Zionist project had to be in line with it: any relatively radical (from the British administrators point of view) proposals were rejected or postponed indefinitely. Towards the Arabs of Palestine Great Britain was conducting mainly declarative policy without any serious consideration of their problems and grievances, although trying to appease their demands to a certain extent. Even the Arab riots of 1920 and 1921 did not cause a serious change in the British political course in Palestine, although they did contribute to the emergence of Churchills White Paper in 1922, declaring certain concessions to the Arab national movement, which never accepted the document. At the same time British policy in general was neither pro-Zionist, nor pro-Arab: England was pursuing its long-term strategic goals in the Middle East, skillfully utilizing Zionist and Arab national movements to achieve them.

The withdrawal of US troops and the rapid takeover of Kabul by the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) in Afghanistan in 2021 shocked the world community. Even though the PRC actively opposes international terrorism, which the Taliban movement (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) is accused of supporting, it has become one of the few countries that have begun to cooperate with the new Afghan regime. In the light of these events, China’s view of the situation in Afghanistan is puzzling, in particular, we are interested in how these events are reported in Chinese press. In this paper, first, we trace the evolution of the PRC’s official position on Afghanistan, and then, using frame analysis, analyze the coverage of the events of 2021 in the PRC by focusing on three authoritative newspapers, Chinese language versions of “People’s Daily”, “Global Times”, and “The Paper”. Our study demonstrates that the Chinese press supports China’s foreign policy in general and its policy in Afghanistan in particular. Stability in Afghanistan and cooperation with the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) on issues of Uighur separatism are important for China’s national security. In the Chinese media, the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) are not presented as accomplices of terrorism, which China is fighting within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization but are described as representatives of the Afghan people who aim to restore the security and stability in the country. When discussing the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) takeover in the Chinese media, the focus is often not on the crimes of the new regime - repression, abuse of power, restriction of rights, but on shortcoming of the US policy. The latter reflects an important discursive practice in the Chinese media, “othering” the United States.

Law as a special kind of ideal being, generates its own system of ideas and meanings, the verbal representation of which involves not only directly nominative linguistic units, but also semantic tropes, namely, metaphor. Metaphor is a little-studied linguistic phenomenon in legal science, whose functioning in the language of law is denied by many researchers. However, metaphor is an integral component of the nature of law, realized in its various sources. Stemmed from the deep structures of language, metaphor allows appealing to a priori ideas of law of metaphysical level, not subject to rational argumentation, which becomes an integral part of the legal system, making the legal text understandable and accessible to the recipient. The relevance of the chosen topic is conditioned by the necessity to study the metaphorical meanings of legal language at the stage of creating law and interpreting legal realities. For this end the author uses the methods of semantic analysis, and, in general, raises interest in metaphor and metaphorical model in modern science, as well as functioning of metaphor in the legal space. The novelty of the idea underlying the paper lies in applying metaphorical models for legal texts interpretation. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to prove that metaphorical mechanisms are not alien to the language of law; metaphorical model is one of the most productive in the process of semantization of ideas of law. In the light of the above, application of linguistic tools, primarily, the methods of semantic analysis, to the study of legal language and the language of law, in particular, is relevant. Modern methodological tools of linguistics are able to supplement the traditional methods of legal argumentation and interpretation, actualizing their form and content. The main methods of the research are the linguistic-legal method, logical-linguistic method, methods of historical, contextual and motivational analysis. Frequency and universality of the mechanism of metaphorical modelling for the language of law, actualize new functions of metaphor.

The paper examines the issues of bringing controlling persons to subsidiary liability for the obligations of a company excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The article determines the judicial procedure for holding controlling persons accountable for claims of creditors. It analyzes the provisions of Russian legislation and judicial practice regarding the grounds for prosecution under paragraph 3.1 Article 3 of the Law on Limited Liability Companies.The research reveals the effect of this rule of law over time and it essence, which excludes the use of the construction of limited liability of participants in a business company. An overview of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the issues under consideration including the circle of responsible persons, distribution of burden and circumstances of evidence is provided. The paper distinguishes characteristics of good faith and reasonable behavior of creditors and controlling persons as well as legal presumptions corresponding to the circumstance of the case. The conclusion is formulated on the recognition of subsidiary liability by inheritance of debts of a corporate organization. The paper investigates the competence of the court considering disputes on bringing to subsidiary liability of persons controlling a corporation and distinguishes between the corporate (under the general rules of litigation) and bankruptcy (under the rules of class action) proceedings. The characteristics of the powers of creditors acting in the interests of their civil law community are given. The research allows to ensure uniformity of judicial practice at interpreting the applicable rules of law.

The information about main results on geometry of developable surfaces with an edge of regression which have a directrix ellipse in the base is gathered. These surfaces constitute a group called “Ruled surfaces of conical type on elliptical base”. This group includes elliptical cones, torses with two ellipses defined in the parallel planes, equal slope surfaces, and ruled surfaces with the main frame of three superellipses that are ellipses in one coordinate plane and broken straight lines in the other two coordinate planes. The paper presents a method for developing torses onto a plane, approximation of torses by folded surfaces, and parabolic ending of a thin sheet from elastic material into a torse shell. A brief review of the methods of stress-strain and buckling analysis of the considered ruled shells is given, including the displacement-based finite element method and variational energy method. It is shown that analytical methods can be used only in the case of applying the momentless shell theory for ruled thin shells of conical type. The analytical formulae for determining the normal and tangent internal forces in any momentless conic shell with a superellipse in the base are derived. References to forty four scientific articles of other authors, working or having worked on the subject of the paper are given. These references confirm the conclusions of the author and the perspectives of investigations of the considered ruled surfaces and shells.

Metaphor has been established and extensively examined as one of the tools experts deploy to explain, simplify and transform complex scientific discourse into the knowledge suitable for the audience of non-experts. However, relatively little research has been conducted on metaphor scenario (Musolff 2006, 2016a) and its role in this process. Therefore, in this paper we explore how metaphor scenario is used to explain Covid-19 vaccines’ safety and effectiveness to the population in an understandable manner in order to speed up the immunization process in Serbia. By analysing a data set gathered from various Serbian electronic news media sources ( NovaS , N1 , Danas , Vreme , Večernje novosti , Mondo , Politika , Telegraf , Krug ) published from January to December 2021, we aim to explore (1) how the three metaphor scenarios, combat, container and movement, may help simplify complex scientific concepts in the pro-vaccine discourse; and (2) how the conceptual elements of these scenarios and their interconnected relations are used for this purpose. The findings showed that these conventional scenarios manifest their explanatory potential by means of several sub-scenarios, whose conceptual elements establish useful mappings relying on rarely used components of source domains. The results confirm that metaphor scenarios may be used strategically by medical experts as an apt explanatory tool to simplify challengingly complex scientific concepts to the general public. The paper contributes to current research on the role that metaphor and other cognitive instruments play in science popularization.

As the geopolitical situation changes, it is necessary to discuss how politics is structured by metaphor in the context of recent social phenomena, such as the European migrant crisis. This paper analyses the conceptual metaphors politics as war, politics as a game, politics as a trade, and politics as a theater in British and Bosnian-Herzegovinian newspapers. The goal of this study is to establish to what extent and in which situations journalists resort to figurative language to persuade the recipients to view politics in a desired way. The paper aims to reflect on the use of deliberate metaphor as a perspective-changing device by journalists striving to achieve their rhetorical goals and influence recipients’ perception of the political situation. The corpus comprises 174 British and 307 Bosnian-Herzegovinian articles collected from August 2015 to March 2016 (247,912 words). Relying on Steen et al.’s (2010) model of metaphor analysis, the paper investigates the types of metaphor in the corpus, the deliberate use of politics metaphors and their communicative function in migration discourse - discussing both the rhetorical goals of journalists and the rhetorical effects on recipients. It has been established that the analyzed set of metaphors has a divertive and persuasive function in migration discourse. Similar studies are encouraged to shed light on how deliberate metaphors related to politics may have diverging communicative functions in other types of discourse.

Cognitive linguistic investigations into the metaphorical conceptualization of anger suggest that languages are remarkably similar on a schematic level, with intensity and control as two, possibly universal dimensions underlying the metaphorical conceptualization of anger. These dimensions, however, can manifest themselves in language-specific metaphors. Yet arriving at a definitive answer to the question of universality versus variation is hindered by (a) a relatively limited number of systematic, contrastive analyses; and (b) varied methodologies, with some papers adopting a type-based account, while others following a token-based analysis. We take up both challenges in the present paper with the aim of offering a more definitive answer to the question of the universality and variation of anger metaphors. We investigate the anger metaphors of a type-based analysis, focusing on dictionary data of anger-related idioms, and a token-based analysis, focusing on data collected from online corpora, in three languages: (American) English (2,000 random instances of the lemma anger from the Corpus of Contemporary American English), Hungarian (1,000 instances of the lemma düh from the Hungarian National Corpus) and Russian (1,000 instances of the lemma gnev from the Russian National Corpus). The lexical data were analyzed with the well-established Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP). Our results indicate that there is a great deal of congruence relative to shared metaphors in both approaches, but this derives from specific-level metaphors in the lexical approach, whereas it derives from more schematic, generic-level metaphors in the corpus-based approach. The study shows that the full picture of the metaphorical conceptualization of a complex emotion concept such as anger can only emerge with the combination of the type- and token-based approach.

Most papers written on polysemy focus on sense overlaps and lexical ambiguity, yet studies that explore the possibility of establishing a polysemic complex and explaining how the new interpretations arise through metaphor are almost non-existent in Arabic. This paper aims to explore how metaphor serves to create new concepts as part of polysemic complexes through adopting Dynamic Conceptual Semantics. The target words are bidʒannin [make mad][1] in Jordanian Arabic (JA) and mad in American English (AE). An online questionnaire containing 15 items was sent to forty participants (20 JA speakers and 20 AE speakers) where they were asked to provide the interpretations of the words bidʒannin and mad in contextualized sentences. The AE contextualized instances of mad were collected from Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) which generated 5,168 tokens of mad (in the years 2015/2019). The questionnaire results were discussed in a semi-structured focus-group discussion involving 10 participants. We have demonstrated that when an expression is deemed suitable for all situations categorized under both the primary perspective of madness and a related perspective involving exaggerated descriptions of entities, a concept (P) emerges that bears similarity or relevance to the polysemic complex ( bidʒannin\mad ) to which the expression belongs. In such cases, we can consider the related perspective (P') as a member of the polysemic complex ( bidʒannin\mad ). Thus, this study explains how the same metaphor can lead to a complex of multiple meanings in two different languages that are not necessarily related to each other.

In the current climate ecolinguistic research has arguably never been more important, as its basic premises regard the survival of life on Earth and key philosophical questions hitherto under-acknowledged by mainstream science. In recent decades, environmental thinking has made great advances in shaping current opinions towards nature and the non-human world. The goal of this paper is to explore certain currents of mediated thinking in modern Britain regarding nature, in order to assess how far expressions of sorrow for the felling of a prominent tree might correspond to a genuine ecological sentiment. The study explores public responses to an apparent case of eco-vandalism, the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree in September 2023 in Northumberland, using data taken from social media and other online sources such as e-newspapers. From the point of view of Ecolinguistic theory and that of Positive Discourse Analysis it applies critical lenses such as Evaluation and Discourse Pragmatics to dig beneath the surface of texts produced on the topic, in order to explore diverse current attitudes to trees in the UK. The paper finds that, though there are instances in which people appear to express grief for the loss of the Sycamore Gap tree, it is possible to account for these in ways that lessen the likelihood that they are motivated by purely ecological sentiment. In practice human attitudes towards trees tend to be superficial and instrumental, and this tendency is also found here. The Sycamore Gap event brings many latent social attitudes into play, and this paper thus contributes to the developing field of Ecolinguistics by focusing on tree-centred narratives, distinguishing between inherent ideologies of pseudo- and authentic environmental sensitivity.

This paper, for the first time in Russian historiography, provides information on the 6th-10th centuries history of Dagestan on the basis of translation, commentary and comparative analysis of excerpts in relation to the history of Caucasian peoples from AbūʿUbayd al-Bakrī’s (d.1094) Kitāb al-masālik wa-al-mamālik (A Book of Routes and Countries). This work presents a brief description of different polities: indicating trade routes, distances between towns etc. sort of the administrative directory. Kitāb al-masālik wa-al-mamālik is considered as one of the important sources on south-western and north-western Africa history, particularly, during the period of the Almoravids’ reign (1040-1147). As for the information about the Caucasus given by al-Bakri so it’s largely not original. The paper discusses the main aspects of al-Bakrī’s life and scholarly activities who was an expert in Islamic history and Arabic geography. He particularly outlines the history of different Caucasian polities like Derbent; describes the Caspian sea; gives detailed list of routes and distance between polities etc. Moreover, I compared some reports on Dagestan from Muruj az-zahab and Kitab at-tanbih by al-Mas‘udi and al-Bakrī’s work in order to find out whether the origin of the material is the same.

All living organisms are surrounded by natural and artificial origin electromagnetic radiation (EMR), which affects organisms. The artificial radiation sources number is increasing, but the EMR influence mechanisms on living organisms have not yet been fully investigated, despite the large number of studies. However, understanding the EMR action mechanisms can give impetus to the development of various biotechnologies. To solve the problem of understanding the EMR effects on organisms and develop new biotechnologies, it is necessary to apply new research methods. Therefore, the study of research methods is an urgent task. This research is a review of studies and research methods on the effects, of EMR on organisms. It brings together studies that consider different approaches to the study and existing hypotheses of the mechanisms of radiation effects. The aim of the paper is to review and evaluate methodological approaches to investigate the effects of EMR. The paper considers research on the EMR effects on microorganisms, eubacteria. Based on the results of the work, it is proposed to study the effect of radiation lasting several hours. As well as to apply spectrophotometry and fluorimetry methods.

Since entering the era of bioeconomy, the biotechnology industry economy represented by the bio pharmaceutical industry is leading a new wave of technological revolution. China’s strategic deployment for the bio pharmaceutical industry economy has achieved remarkable results, but there is still a large competitive gap compared with the United States and other biomedical powers. The goal of this article is to study the American biomedical market and find out the gap, so as to provide inspiration for the development of the biomedical industry in China and other countries. The Porter Diamond Model is used to build the theoretical research method analysis framework of the international competitiveness of the bio pharmaceutical industry. Taking the United States as an example, the paper analyzes its competitive advantages in six aspects: the elements of the biomedical industry, the enterprise structure and competition, the demand conditions, the relevant and supporting industries, the government and development opportunities. Based on this, the paper puts forward policy recommendations conclusions for China’s development of the bio pharmaceutical industry, so as to provide reference value for the development of the pharmaceutical industry.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is the most serious crisis in international relations since the Cold War. This is not only a turning point in Russian-Ukrainian relations, but also a deep crisis in Russian-Western relations, which marked a change in Moscow’s approach to relations with the West, and the transition from past dialogue to today’s struggle. China, as a third party in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, took a neutral position from the very beginning, and ignored any requests from the United States and the West to somehow influence Russia. China’s position has increasingly attracted the attention of the Western media, and Beijing has begun to receive accusations from the West of supporting Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. This paper analyzes the articles published by Chinese academic experts on the media, and analyzes the content of Chinese popular media websites, such as CCTV News The Paper, Guanchazhe for the period from April 1, 2022 to December 1, 2022. In the course of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the Chinese media mostly cover the events in Ukraine in a neutral way, they try to balance and not criticize Moscow when it comes to Russian-Western relations. Chinese experts have different views and thoughts when talking about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and Russian-Western relations. Some Chinese analysts talked about Russia’s victory over the West, while others believe that Russia may end up with nothing. The authors concludes that the West and Russia may fall into a new Cold War, and this Cold War may turn out to be even more brutal than the last one for three main reasons: because of the all-encompassing military confrontation, because of economic isolation, and because of breakdown of humanitarian ties.

The proposed paper is a study of resource nationalism. Resource nationalism appeared in Mongolia in the post-Socialist period. In this paper, we understand resource nationalism as a wide spectrum of strategies domestic elites employ in order to increase their control of natural resources - definition by Paul Domjan and Matt Stone. After an analysis of legal materials, mass media articles and political rhetoric, the author of this paper concludes that the sources of resource nationalism should be searched in the texts that date back to the Socialist era. Also, the sources of resource nationalism can be found in the ideas about justice of those times. The idea that natural resources belong to the people has been fixed in mass opinion, while contemporary nationalists justify this idea from the standpoint of “blood and soil”. That creates serious problems for Mongolia, a country with resource economy. The matter is that economic growth driven with foreign investments has caused a deep social stratification. In its turn, social stratification gave birth to a social demand for fair profit distribution from natural resource extraction. In the political sphere, this social demand quickly received a reaction - in the form of resource nationalism rhetoric. In the paper, we notice that resource nationalism in Mongolia has not been formed as a vivid legal or political doctrine. Today, it is a set of populist rhetoric of current interest which are used both for lobbying future political decisions in mining and for legitimizing the decisions already made.

Global technological transformations of key areas of life of contemporary society, the formation and active functioning of global and national digital institutions that influence current socio-political processes, and the digitalization of social relations form a demand for comprehensive scientific research on the processes of digital influence on the development and functioning of modern social systems. This article is aimed at considering the problem of the relationship between digital and worldview aspects of the functioning of modern societies. In connection with this, the research issue was to determine the degree and nature of the influence of digitalization processes, as well as directly the digital environment and institutions on the content aspects of the individual’s worldview. This research question is directly related to the study of the phenomenon of public consent in the context of the formation of digital polymentality. To answer the research question posed in the paper, the authors conducted a discourse analysis of the existing scientific literature on the relationship between digitalization and worldview in the pro et contra logic. An international expert study was also conducted, which made it possible to identify the main expert positions on the study, as well as the key risks, threats, and challenges in the field of preserving the traditional worldview and achieving public consent based on the unity of value-semantic and worldview ideas of individuals. The main conclusion of the paper is the fundamental ambiguity of the positions of scientists and experts, justified by the results of the study, in assessing the degree and nature of the influence of digitalization, the digital environment and institutions on the content parameters of the worldview of a modern person, as well as the ambiguity of the value-semantic attitudes formed and maintained in the digital environment.

The purpose of the research is to develop a variational method for calculation of three-dimensional structures based on approximating functions with finite carriers of an arbitrary degree of approximation. In the early papers of the authors, the method was presented in a linear formulation, and the possibility of calculating both three-dimensional compound structures and thin shells was shown. This paper proposes an algorithm for strength calculation of thick and thin shells with elastic-plastic deformations. The geometry of shells is described in a curvilinear orthogonal coordinate system, e.g., in cylindrical, spherical, or conical ones. The calculation method uses the basic equations of small elastic-plastic deformations for the curvilinear coordinate system. The calculation algorithm was based on a model of material with linear strengthening. To obtain a resolving system of nonlinear equations, the Lagrange variational principle is used. The problem is solved by means of iteration. The first iteration corresponds to a linear problem. At each iteration, after solving the system of equations, the intensities of deformations at each point of integration are calculated. These intensities of deformations are substituted into the matrices of elasticity at the following iterations. The process of iteration is characterized by recalculation of the elasticity matrix at each iteration in each integration point. The researche have shown a stable convergence of the process of iteration. A testing solution of elastic-plastic deformation problems of a thick pipe and a thin shell was carried out. The calculation results were in good agreement with the results obtained both by classical formulas for elastic plastic deformation and with the results of calculations in the Ansys Mechanical program.

The Global Innovation Index 2022 ranks the Republic of Uzbekistan among the top three economies in Central and South Asia. The country has been active in introducing innovations in various fields, from road transport technologies to biotechnology. The relevant programmes and resolutions of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan have been adopted. The Republic of Uzbekistan is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for foreign investment. The country has a strong potential and abundant resources, both natural and human. By pursuing a consistent policy, the Republic of Uzbekistan is gradually beginning to assert itself on the world stage, and is striving to become a leader in Central Asia. Thus, the consideration of new projects carried out within the framework of innovation policy is relevant. The aim of the presented paper is to identify main innovation policy development trends in the Republic of Uzbekistan. To analyze the innovation policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the authors considered the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan coordinating the activities of the Ministry of Innovation Development, the New Uzbekistan Development Strategy for 2022-2026, as well as local and Russian experts’ assessments. The research literature, mass media sources, public opinion polls and statistical data, as well as the legal framework were studied. In this paper a diagnosis of the Ministry of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan has been made, and the key tasks and directions of the country’s reforms in this area have been identified. The main projects, which attract significant investments and introduce new technologies and personnel, are described. The author’s position is as follows: the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan is struggling with the problems that hinder innovation reforms, as well as actively developing cooperation with foreign countries, international organizations and attracts the investments of private investors.

The paper considers the problem of price and financial stability of the Bank of Russia, as well as the issue of the influence of inflation and currency exchange rate volatility on economic growth rates. It has been proved that the growth in prices for services has a significant impact on the inflation dynamics. It is the dynamics of the consumer price index for services that generally determine inflation in the service sector. It has been substantiated that in the policy of the Bank of Russia it is expedient to use non-monetary instruments to reduce inflation, namely the development of competition and control over the pricing mechanism on the market. Effective measures that contribute to reducing the variation in prices for services and inflation are: raising competition in the economy and the growth of control over the activities of natural monopolies; measures aimed at developing competition in the housing and communal services market, control over the formation of tariffs in the light of the implementation of programs intended to increase the efficiency of natural monopoly subjects; implementation of the requirements for the growth of transparency and openness of the activities of natural monopolies, especially in terms of tariff calculation, as well as the growth of control over their activities; the participation of the Bank of Russia, together with the territorial offices of the Bank of Russia and the Offices of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, in the process of monitoring and approving the tariffs of natural monopolies. Based on the results of the study, the authors of the paper developed proposals for non-monetary instruments as a measure to reduce inflation and improve the policy effectiveness of the Bank of Russia on inflation targeting.

In this paper, the authors consider models for building digital economy systems in foreign countries. The relevance of research is primarily due to the need to develop a clear and coherent understanding of the optimal scheme of digital construction in the economy of the Russian Federation, which at the initial stage is impossible without analyzing the experience already existing in the world. It is necessary to identify both stimulating and inhibiting factors that influence the effectiveness of the digital transformation of foreign economic systems. The purpose of the study is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the most successful global models of building a digital economy, followed by the development of an understanding of their applicability in Russia. Thus, in this paper, the authors offered their answer to the question: “Can the Russian Federation successfully apply the already proven strategy of digital transformation of the economy or is it necessary to develop unique own solutions?” To do this, the authors examined statistical data characterizing the economy of advanced states from the point of view of digital transformation, regulatory documents regulating state policy in this area, as well as the positions of researchers working in this direction. The use of the statistical analysis method made it possible to compare the factors of influence and the results of digital construction. Within the framework of a formal and logical approach based on the study of the provisions of strategic planning documents of foreign countries, the authors formulated some possible scenarios for the further development of the digital transformation of the economies of Europe, the United States and China. As a result of the conducted research, the authors concluded about the possibility of using certain digital construction tools used abroad, in Russia, and also assess the degree of effectiveness of the introduction of foreign models of digital transformation into the practice of the domestic economy.

In the course of its postcolonial development, the African continent has faced many challenges, ranging from socio-economic crises to political instability and the proliferation of terrorism. The lack of security, which remains a source of constant concern for Africans, and the gradual disengagement of the international community, primarily the United Nations (UN), from armed involvement in the resolution of military conflicts on the continent in the 1990s, led to the emergence of the concept of “African solutions to African problems.” The phrase, which reflects the determination of Africans to solve their problems without the participation of external actors, has become a source of their pride; however, the possibility and ability of the inhabitants of the continent to implement this approach still raises justified doubts for a number of reasons that are to be discussed in this paper. The concept of “African solutions to African problems” has now become the main principle that determines the level and nature of the peacekeeping activities of the African Union (AU) and African regional blocs; the verbal adherence of the AU member states to this maxim has been noted by many Russian and foreign researchers. However, a comprehensive analysis of the reasons for the unsuccessful implementation of this concept has not yet been carried out by Russian scholars, so the present article aims to fill this gap. In particular, the paper examines attempts of Africans to solve their problems in the field of security independently. The study allows us to claim that the African continent, primarily due to its insufficient integration and lack of consensus on a number of issues of political development and security, is not yet ready to carry out full-fledged peacekeeping operations without external support, although the gradual acquisition of relevant experience, the decrease in economic dependence on the West, and the diversification of foreign policy will contribute to laying a solid foundation for the idea of “African solutions to African problems.”

The paper considers benefits and drawbacks of the Picture Naming Test (PNT) as a diagnostic method suggesting the ways to improve its diagnostic and research validity. Although this test is popular in both national and international neuropsychological assessment and research practice, its use is largely due to tradition and practical convenience. However, theoretical underpinnings for its effectiveness are not sufficiently represented in the pertinent literature, which determines the relevance of the study. The major objective of the paper is to consider the PNT as a research technique from the point of view of psycholinguistics, cognitive science, and corpus linguistics and to propose integrated approaches for the further development of these tests. The material comprises picture naming tests developed for the Russian and English languages. The study sets the following aims: 1) to define the main features of PNT and the principles of its application viewed from a historical perspective; 2) to identify the theoretical foundations (linguistic and neuropsychological) for its use as a diagnostic tool; 3) to highlight the problematic aspects of the method; 4) to suggest possible ways to eliminate them. To accomplish these tasks, various methods of corpus linguistics are applied throughout the article. The historical outline of PNT development suggests that the current design might stem from earlier contexts of use. A review of existing models of lexical access provides a theoretical basis for the test in its current form and suggests possible avenues for its development grounded in experimental research, advances in linguistics and big data analysis. A separate section of the article presents critique of the most popular tests. Finally, the analysis of the existing English and Russian tests through the corpus-based methodology clearly demonstrates the need for more detailed norming and stimuli selection. By way of conclusion the authors outline the principles of designing Picture Naming Tests for specific purposes and put forward a step-by-step algorithm that enables careful selection of the necessary indicators and parameters.

The study investigates the impact of workforce planning on organizational effectiveness in Osun State Civil Service. The research design used is a descriptive survey, while the approximate population size of the ministries is 11,243. This paper adopts a two-stage sampling technique for the collection of data. A total of 240 questionnaires were completely retrieved and utilized for the study. The hypothesis was tested with Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Regression Analysis. The findings show a highly significant linear correlation between workforce planning and organizational effectiveness at a 0.05 significance level. Also, workforce planning significantly impacts organizational effectiveness in Osun State Civil Service, Osogbo. It is concluded that workforce planning will enhance the effectiveness of the organization. The paper recommends that the Human Resource department develop and implement a comprehensive career development training program.

In “The Phenomenology of Spirit” and “Philosophy of Right”, Hegel gives a detailed specification of the theses about the war that were claimed in earlier papers and manuscripts, but his position is not fundamentally changed. In the “The Phenomenology of Spirit” Hegel advocates governments’ need and right to initiate a war from time to time in order to prevent both the isolation and atomization, and let individuals feel the death. As in the past, the war, as Hegel says, has a moment of ethical life. In the “Philosophy of Right” Hegel introduces final deliberations about war that rely on ideas of his earlier paper about natural law even more than in the “The Phenomenology of Spirit”. Hegel emphasizes the ethical role of sacrifice in the war and expresses opinions critical of not an abstract perpetual peace but a concrete philosophical project of Kant. Due to Hegel, Kant’s perpetual peace does not resemble a perpetual deception, since the required union of states is elusive and none except the world spirit in the world history can be a praetor. In line with Heraclitus, Hegel maintains that wars underlie the nature of things. I contribute to the discussions of Hegel scholars if Hegel’s philosophy glorifies a war or not as follows: I substitute the term “glorification” with the term “bellicisme” that suits better to measured, not snobbish and deprived of certain historical implications Hegel’s theses about reasonableness, necessity, the ethicality of war and ethicality of perpetual peace illness.

This paper aims to examine the present and past tense-aspect constructions in Jish Arabic, an undocumented Arabic variety of Upper Galilee (Israel), and delineate their morphological, syntactic, and semantic features. Nine such constructions are identified, and the structure of each construction is discussed. In addition, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach (NSM), an explication (a definition using simple words) of the meaning of each construction is presented. In discussing the Jish Arabic constructions, a comparison is made with their English counterparts, which are chosen as a familiar point of reference. The comparison with English does not make the explications prone to Anglocentrism, as the explications are built via a simple, universal language. This language ensures their translatability into Jish Arabic and their verification by native Jish Arabic speakers. In addition, it makes their meanings accessible to non-specialists, as the explications can be translated into any language. This study can be seen as a contribution to the field of theoretical linguistics, particularly descriptive linguistics, as it documents the tense-aspect constructions of an undocumented variety. In addition, it can be seen as a contribution to the field of applied linguistics, especially as it compares these constructions to their English counterparts. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate the investigation of tense-aspect constructions in other non-standard Arabic varieties, most of which are undocumented.

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of three cases - Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam - to examine the distinctive features of Southeast Asian states’ involvement in peacekeeping. These cases provide representative insights into the motivations and experiences of regional states that joined UN peacekeeping operations at different historical junctures: Indonesia in the 1950s, Thailand in the 1990s, and Vietnam in the 2000s. By identifying the common and unique aspects of this engagement, the authors argue that Southeast Asian nations’ approaches to peacekeeping are deeply rooted in the values that underpin their foreign and domestic policies. Appealing to these values, Southeast Asian states contribute conceptual innovations to existing peacekeeping models, which are predominantly based on Western perspectives. By generalizing the peacekeeping experiences of Southeast Asian states, this paper fills a gap between broader publications that focus on Asian peacekeeping practices and single-country studies. The research underscores that Southeast Asian states, following a challenging period of decolonization and nation-building in the framework imposed by the Westphalian international relations system, have been trying to infuse their own approaches into the Westernized realm of international interaction. Since the 1950s, several regional states have participated in UN peacekeeping operations. The involvement of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in resolving the Cambodian conflict in the late 1980s and the Thailand - Cambodia settlement in 2008-2011 has stimulated the development of regional peacekeeping practices. By contributing to peacekeeping operations, Southeast Asian states aspire to enhance their regional and even global influence. In certain instances, their engagement in peacekeeping has ideological, cultural or religious motivations, or stems from specific foreign and domestic policy considerations.

Research in the field of regional conflict resolution rarely touches on the issue of justice. This paper aims to identify what understanding of international justice underlies Russia’s actions as a mediator/peacekeeper in the process of regional conflict resolution in the 1990s-2010s. The study also contributes to the understanding of Russia’s foreign policy by clarifying Moscow’s views on the essence and parameters of a just global order. The paper provides a study of the dominant Russian views on the essence of justice in international relations. It offers an insight into Russia’s peace-making and conflict resolution activities in the context of the three concepts of global justice and taking into account the factor of national interests. The study concludes that the dominant understanding of international justice in Russia is that which corresponds to Allen Buchanan’s concept of subjective justice. In Moscow’s view, international justice is a set of rules developed in the process of consensus driven negotiations between the great powers. According to this logic, a just settlement of the regional conflict is possible only on the basis of the consensus of the parties to the conflict and in accordance with the interests of the global and regional powers concerned. The fair interaction of the great powers in the settlement of the regional conflict and the impact that the conflict resolution could have on the development of the international order were of crucial importance for Moscow within the period under consideration. Moscow’s activity in the conflict resolution in the post-Soviet space generally corresponded to the model of justice as mutual recognition, but with absolute priority of Russian national interests. The strategy for resolving regional conflicts in the post-Soviet space could only be understood in the broad context of relations with Western countries and has changed in line with the development of these relations.

In January 2022, Kazakhstan was faced with an attempt of a violent change of power in the form of mass protests that spread throughout the country and were organized with the basic techniques of color revolutions. The country’s own law enforcement forces were not able to cope with radical citizens, looters-rioters, and terrorists, and in these circumstances the head of state, K.K. Tokayev, decided to request the support of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) allies, who immediately sent the united peacekeeping troops to the republic. The CSTO peacekeeping mission, coordinated by Russia, successfully restored constitutional order in the country and prevented a violent coup d’état. The purpose of this research is to analyze the course of the January events and actions of the CSTO, as well as their impact on Kazakhstan, the region and the organization itself. The paper is based on interviews with experts from the CSTO member states, studies carried out in this area of research, and statements by official authorities. The synthesis of the research results is divided into thematic blocks and supplemented by the author’s conclusions. The paper mentions aspects such as the transition of power, changes in Kazakhstan’s domestic and foreign policies, the effectiveness of the CSTO organization and the expansion of its potential use. Proposals are also provided regarding the strengthening of defense integration and the need to develop a common regional identity. The research is unique in that it brings expert opinions from six CSTO member states, the results of studies carried out by researchers from Russia, Kazakhstan, and abroad, and the theoretical terminology of Western political ideology. The author presents the area of responsibility of the CSTO as a Eurasian security community based not only on collective security, but also on economic interdependence and a sense of community among the nations of its member states.

This study is to complete the research in the Russian reflexive verbs - first in a series of articles intended to demonstrate how language teaching could correct some points of General Linguistics. This paper capture the lessons learned and gives recommendations on how the complicated phenomenon can be quite simply presented to foreign audiences when teaching the Russian language. Linguistically postfix -sya that marks reflexive verbs is to regulate subject - object balance within utterance in accordance with the speaker’s intention. And thus, voice of verbs is not so much a verbal category as a syntactic one. In terms of teaching, it is proposed to use a continuum scale with extreme points “100% active - 100% passive” based on the idea of “independence” of the subject S1. It is proposed to use the concept of “closed system”, borrowed from physics. There are 3 zones on the scale: an undoubted asset - a “transition zone” - an undoubted liability. This makes the phenomenon of reflexivity simple and understandable and removes a number of difficulties.

A visual metaphor is an image that allows you convey the meaning that escapes during verbal representation, as well as to enhance the impact of the message. It is for this reason that visual metaphor occupies a special place in pedagogical discourse. The explanation of unknown concepts and phenomena by referring to the formed units of knowledge presented figuratively is a necessary stage of cognition of reality. Visual metaphorization of complexly organized aggregates of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world facilitates their perception, thereby representing their essence in a visual and accessible form. The basis of the visual metaphor is the similarity in function, purpose, shape, color, size. A number of scientific papers are devoted to the methodology of analyzing individual verbal metaphors. At the same time, the visual metaphors used by the teacher to explain the transmitted educational information have not been practically investigated. This provision determines the relevance of the research. The target of the study is to study the specifics of visual metaphorization in pedagogical discourse. As part of the educational process, visual metaphors are embodied in the form of mind maps, mood boards, singular metaphorical references that explicate an Abstract idea in a system of images formed during the development of curricula and personal subjective experience. It is established that the use of these methods of visualization of theoretical material, built on the basis of a given visual metaphor, contribute to the structuring and memorization of educational information, the development of creative and cognitive potential. A visual metaphor acts as a vector for analyzing a problem situation: the creative process of interpreting a visual image leads to the identification of a logical relationship between the images, revealing the nature of the object or phenomenon being studied, as well as the formation of creative thinking of students.

This study delves into the intricate usage of certainty stance adverbs in the academic writings of the Chinese. The object of this study is to conduct a contrastive analysis of certainty stance adverbs between Chinese linguistic MA novices and linguistic experts. The subject of this study is to explore the similarities and differences in the use of these adverbs within the academic discourse of the two groups mentioned. In addressing these disparities, the study seeks to analyze them from the perspective of interlanguage and interpersonal function, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the production of high-quality academic papers by the Chinese. The study employs two key methods: the contrastive analysis method and the corpus-based method. The novelty of the study lies in its contrastive examination of certainty stance adverbs between Chinese linguistic MA novices and experts. Through an in-depth analysis of theoretical frameworks and linguistic data extracted from the MA theses of Chinese linguistic novices and research articles of linguistic experts, the study underscores the importance of considering the similarities and differences in the use of certainty stance adverbs within the realm of second language acquisition and pragmatic studies. This consideration aims to refine learners’ syntactical and pragmatic command of certainty stance adverbs to align with expert academic discourse, ultimately fostering effective interpersonal communication in academic writing. The findings of this research offer valuable insights into the specific linguistic challenges encountered by the Chinese, thereby laying a solid groundwork for the development of targeted pedagogical strategies to bolster their academic writing skills.

In 1994, the African National Congress (ANC)-led government implemented a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) program that entailed providing South Africans with stable and regular electricity supplies. Government through the state president declared COVID-19 a pandemic in 2019. Institutions of higher education resorted to introduce online teaching and learning as a method of ensuring that section 27 (1) (a) (b) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa was executed. Load shedding brought numerous challenges in the education settings in the institutions of higher learning. The crisis led to institutional economy and disrupted academic performance at institutions of higher learning. The purpose of this study is to examine whether load shedding can be regarded as a pandemic post COVID-19. Access the impact of load shedding at institutions of higher learning. Therefore, this is a conceptual paper and it relied on existing data for analysis and interpretation. The study recommends that institution of higher learning should invest in alternative sources of energy, and develop an effective communication strategy.

A significant rise in water levels in the rivers during the spring flood and the release of rivers to the floodplain is the main danger in this period for nearby territories and people living there. This phenomenon can lead to flooding of large areas, significant economic losses, environmental damage, and threaten the health and life of local residents. Such negative consequences of high floods are typical for the Tambov region rivers, which indicates the need to develop an effective system for forecasting and preventing maximum flood levels. The climatic changes that have taken place over the past few decades, which are also reflected in the rivers’ water regime, show the need to modernize existing forecasting methodologies. In this paper, the authors have demonstrated the results of the effectiveness assessment of the existing methodology for short-term forecasting of the maximum flood level on the Tsna River at two gauging stations (“Kuzmino-Gat” and “Tambov”). Calculations were made using modern data in accordance with this methodology and a comparative analysis was carried out with the calculations of previous years. Based on this analysis, an assessment of the flood levels forecast methodology accuracy was given. According to the study results, it was found that the existing methodology for short-term forecasting of the maximum flood level on the Tsna River is largely ineffective nowadays with regard to modern conditions of spring flood runoff formation. In the analysis of the Kuzmino-Gat gauging station, the values of the maximum flood levels obtained by the reanalysis method according to the tested methodology using modern data showed significant deviations from the actual observed values. At the same time, for the operational forecast of maximum water levels at the Tambov gauging station, it is possible to use the correlation dependence with the observed water levels at the Kuzmino-Gat gauging station, as before. The correlation coefficient with modern data was 0.96. The authors have highlighted the main drawbacks of the existing methodology and made suggestions for improvement, in particular, what factors need to be analyzed in order to clarify the forecast.

The dynamic relationship between tourism and BeerLao export in Laos is investigated in this article. It provides an in-depth look into the studies that have been conducted showing the various correlations between inbound tourism and economic performance of various countries. Laos is a small landlocked Southeast Asian country with a rich cultural past, magnificent natural beauty and a rising economy despite its small size. Agriculture, particularly rice production, is the economy’s mainstay, although other industries including as manufacturing and services are slowly expanding. The most widely known Laos brand is BeerLao, a distinctive beer label occupying almost 100 % of the country’s market. The current paper explores BeerLao’s history, production, marketing strategies and export destinations, as well as the elements that contribute to its export success - specifically tourism. It seems that the pre-pandemic expansion of BeerLao’s success in the world and inbound tourism dynamics of the country are correlative and have mutually beneficial relationship. The research looks into how tourism might have affected BeerLao’s export volumes and vice versa in pre-pandemic era. The study underlines the importance of tourism and beer exports to the Laotian economy and recommends crucial areas for future investigation. The study intends to provide insights into the economic and cultural significance of tourism and beer exports in Laos, as well as provide meaningful insights to policymakers, investors, and other stakeholders about the potential benefits and problems of these businesses. The study also provides a foundation for further studies of the topical area for Laos products and their possible marketing strategies in regional and world markets.

From 2003 to 2009, China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States engaged in a series of multilateral negotiations to address North Korea’s nuclear program. On September 19, 2005, the six participants achieved a “gold standard” agreement on denuclearization. North Korea agreed to relinquish all nuclear weapons, abstain from deploying nuclear weapons, and rejoin the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), as well as adhere to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. The United States affirmed its lack of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and expressed no intention of attacking or invading the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) with nuclear or conventional weapons. China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States concurred to provide energy assistance to the DPRK. Furthermore, the agreement established the principle of “commitment for commitment, action for action,” which holds significance for the spirit of future engagement. The prevailing impasse in resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula prompts the inquiry of a possible negotiation model. This paper uses the Harvard negotiation method to examine a zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) between China, North Korea, Russia, and the United States, which culminated in the September 19, 2005 Six Party Talks agreement addressing the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. The first section of the article is devoted to scrutinizing the Zone of Possible Agreement (ZOPA), which facilitated the 2005 agreement. Based on the acquired insights, the second section assesses the prospects for implementing the 2005 Joint Statement in the current context. This section also concentrates on identifying a ZOPA under current conditions, taking into account past experiences and lessons learned from past negotiations.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a Beijing-led format for international cooperation through the building of land and sea corridors connecting China with other countries and regions. One of its pillars is the Digital Silk Road (DSR), which aims to reduce the digital divide and improve the digital connectivity of the participating countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the DSR’s activation, which makes it urgent to study its practical implementation in different regions. The aim of this article is to analyze the conceptual foundations of the DSR and its implementation in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The study relies on the technology leadership theory, which allows considering the DSR as an alternative format of cooperation used by China to reform digital international relations. Since it challenges the technological dominance of the West, especially the United States, the power transition theory is also of heuristic value. The methodological basis of the research covers a wide range of general scientific methods of political analysis. The primary sources of empirical analysis are government documents, papers of think tanks, international organizations and forums, statistical data, interactive maps, speeches by officials, etc. In the course of the study, the following objectives are achieved: to trace the evolution of the DSR concept in the official policy discourse; to systematize scientific works on the issue; to highlight key elements of the initiative; to identify opportunities and limitations for its implementation in the LAC region; to present the US response to the intensification of Sino-LAC digital cooperation. It is concluded that the DSR plays an important role in achieving the strategic objective of transforming China into a technological superpower. Therefore, it is highly likely to become a backbone of cooperation under the BRI.

The article presents the results of a sociological empirical study that was conducted from May to August in 2023. Its purpose was to study the attitudes of labor migrants in Russia towards various international integration processes in the post-Soviet space. The objects of the study were workers from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, working in Moscow and the Moscow region. The choice of these countries is not accidental, as they are the main migration donors to the Russian Federation in Central Asia. The uniqueness of the research results lies in the fact that despite the certain “popularity” of such an empirical object as “labor migrants.” The analyzed subject has not yet been sufficiently developed theoretically and empirically. Particular attention is paid to the political preferences and migration attitudes of labor migrants. The issue of awareness of foreign workers of the activities of international integration and military-political associations, such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), European Union (EU), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and also the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is examined. The paper also presents the respondents’ assessment of the role of these associations in the development of international processes. Separately, the article examines the relationship between Russia and migrant-sending countries. Based on the results of the study, the authors conclude that respondents have a positive attitude towards integration associations in which Russia plays a key role. Moreover, the socio-political attitudes of foreign workers are characterized by a high degree of loyalty to the foreign policy of the Russian Federation. Migrants overwhelmingly support international cooperation between their countries and Russia and share the foreign policy position of the Russian Federation. In conclusion, labor migrants from Central Asia can be considered as a resource and capital of the influence of Russian “soft power.”

The doctrine of the “absence of the self” ( anātman ), which is the basis of the ontology of Buddhist schools of all possible orientations, in its application to practical activity implies the existence of such an organizing structure of cognition, which in its essence differs both from the orthodox systems of Indian thought ( āstika ) and from the correlationist ideas of modern transcendental epistemology. The research presents the abhidharma as a genre of Buddhist literature and a discipline of Buddhist system of knowledge (Abhidharma) serves as a cognitive model producing such an image of the world from which the problem of “Self” ( ātman ) is eliminated. Such “elimination” does not mean the destruction of the “I” (ego, personality) at all, but proposes to consider it as an “assemblage”, a composition or autonomous wholeness composed of heterogeneous elements of different natures, each of which in turn is an “assemblage”, the relations between and within the individual “assemblages” being external relations. At the center of the research is the question: is it possible (or how is it possible) to have a strategy of cognition that would not assume as its basis the dichotomy “cognizing subject - cognizable world”, but would have as its goal the transcendence of phenomenal existence. It is argued that Abhidharma/abhidharma is a description of elements shaping the structure of which could be regarded just as such a cognitive strategy. The paper is based on the author’s experience of translating Asaṅga’s Abhidharmasamuccaya (4th century) and a large commentary on it, the Abhidharmasamuccayavyākhyā , attributed to Sthiramāti (6th century)

This article focuses on various trends and linguistic approaches to metaphor studies in Russia (2019-2023). The latter deal with different types of metaphors, process of metaphor formation and the use of metaphors in discourse. The basic methods of investigation include comparative, inductive, generalization and descriptive approaches. The article summarises new results in modern studies of metaphor on data from Slavic, Romance and Germanic languages. In the paper, we show the role of metaphor both as a trope and a cognitive operation in monolingual and comparative studies. Alongside these traditional areas, we discuss the results of metaphor studies in multimodal texts and corpora. Multimodal texts are frequently constructed on the intersection of mental, semiotic and semantic fields. Corpora, which have proved to be a convenient source of recent and reliable data, present another modern sphere of investigation of metaphoric potential in Russian studies. We discuss such important areas of metaphor studies as the interdisciplinary approach, pluralism of methods, critical attitudes to universalism, emphasis on cultural features of communication and discourse, and the blending of rhetorical and cognitive methods.

The article explores the relationship between the functional potential of metaphor and the expression and perception of the author’s opinion. Metaphor is considered as a means of implicit speech impact exerted both from the positions of its generation and perception. This paper aims to identify the correlation between the author’s opinion and various aspects of metaphor power, namely density (the number of metaphors per text), intensity (the ratio of new and conventional metaphors) and the metaphor projections typology (the ratio among orientational, ontological, and structural metaphors). The data for the study were obtained from a two-stage linguistic experiment. First, 20 experts in Russian Philology and Journalism composed three-part texts about Russia (its history, culture, and people), and were asked to summarise their personal opinion in the most relevant part. Then 180 respondents who were students of Moscow State Linguistics University identified the author’s position in the composed essays. The latter were analysed using metaphor-driven discourse analysis (MDDA), which included the identification of metaphor density, their intensity, and functional typology indices. Next, the MDDA numerical values of indices were juxtaposed with the data reflecting the author’s opinion expression and its perception by the respondents. The findings showed that metaphor intensity and density are related to the verbal message persuasion, since in 80% of the cases personal opinion was set forth in those text parts that contained the greatest number of the author’s metaphors. The proven relationship between metaphor power and the author’s opinion expression makes it possible to identify metaphorical speech impact, which reflects forms and degrees of speech impact in different types of texts. Thus, the results expand the theoretical and practical framework for the study of metaphorical speech persuasion.