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This note draws attention to the recent discovery of the papers of the Chartist and newspaper editor W. E. Adams (1832–1906), summarizes their contents and explains why they are to be found in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History in Moscow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of paper "On the question of the biological basis of fisheries" by F.I. Baranov considered a cornerstone paper of modern fishery science. Baranov formalized population dynamics by describing changes in population abundance using differential equations, introducing the concept of instantaneous fishing and natural mortality rates, and developing his catch equation, which is the foundation of most modern age-structured stock assessment models. Baranov was the first to show the effect of fishing on population structure based on theoretical grounds. At the time of its publication, Baranov's paper did not receive much attention in Russia and was completely unknown to scientists in the West. The second publication (On the question of the dynamics of the fishing industry, 1925) received substantial criticism from many and sparked a furious debate between Baranov and his opponents that lasted for several decades. The history and content of those debates, expressed in multiple papers by Baranov, is still largely unknown. I describe the essence of arguments by Baranov and his opponents. The story of these scientific debates reveals how different philosophical concepts and dominant points of view evolved through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks two questions: first, is there enough cancer research in Russia and does it reflect the health needs of the country? and second, how does its quality or impact compare with world standards? Cancer is a serious and growing problem in Russia, but the amount of cancer research, based on papers in journals covered by the Web of Science from 1997 to the present, appears to be inadequate, nor is it well distributed by disease site. However it is quite clinical in character and appears to be well regarded on a number of indicators, although insufficiently publicised. A study of the funding acknowledgements on 2009 papers revealed that cancer research in Russia is almost totally dependent on the state, although there is now foreign support through international co-authorship, including some from private-non-profit and commercial sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen fertilizers have revolutionized agriculture since the early 20th century and made a decisive contribution to combating world hunger. Nevertheless, the technology is controversial today because production is energy-intensive and contributes significantly to climate change. In addition, conventional fertilizers pollute groundwater, rivers and coastal waters. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is made from ammonia (NH3) produced by the Haber-Bosch process, for which a patent was filed with the German Imperial Patent Office in 1908 (DE235421). For the urgently needed development of modern climate-friendly fertilizers, patent law seems to have played a minor role so far. The large and patent-active agrochemical corporations in the industrialized countries are focusing on other technologies, leaving fertilizer production to companies with direct access to energy below the global market price. Another reason is the very generous regulation of nitrogen fertilizers. For farmers, the use of less climate-damaging fertilizers is not worthwhile. However, the disruption of supply chains in the wake of Russia's aggression in Ukraine and the aggravation of climate change could lead to a rethink. In the US, the first support programs for the development of climate-friendly, innovative 'next-generation' fertilizers have been launched. This paper examines the interplay of patent law in concert with regulatory law and government funding tools in the area of innovative fertilizers. It starts from the hypothesis that other legal frameworks have a stronger influence on innovation activity than patent law at the moment. But this could change if the regulatory framework were to impose stricter requirements for the use of fertilizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What has happened to the spectre of Russian hybrid warfare that once haunted strategists, policy-makers and scholars? Many of the characteristics of Russia's 2014 invasion of Crimea have been absent in Moscow's current war, prompting some to wonder whether Russia has moved beyond 'hybrid warfare' as it wages a brutal conventional war in Ukraine. Scholars and practitioners should not pack up their hybrid war handbooks just yet, however. The need to limit conflict escalation between nuclear-armed adversaries suggests that non-military asymmetric tools of will increasingly define great power competition in the twenty-first century. Most urgently, scholars must bring some order to the conceptual debate over what is and is not hybrid war. In this policy paper, we propose a classification scheme that can be applied irrespective of the type of conflict, one that illuminates the wide range of political, social, economic and military weapons states may use in future conflicts. This approach not only allows us to move beyond endless debates over which tactics belong in the definition of hybrid war, but it also allows us to describe changes over time in how countries wage multi-domain wars. By describing the 'hybridity' of all conflict along three continuous axes of scale, militarization and centralization, scholars and policy-makers alike can avoid dangerous blind spots that are likely to arise when we try to categorize conflicts into discrete typological bins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can external threats strengthen group identity? A growing body of research in economics emphasises the importance of cultural attributes such as identity for trust and cooperation. However, where these attributes come from is not well understood. This paper examines reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, looking at European Union member states. Comparing low-threat to high-threat states in a difference-in-differences design, I find a sizeable and persistent positive effect on EU identity. It is associated with higher trust in EU institutions and support for common policies. Lower-level identities remain unaffected, and proximity to Russia and Russian minority size are driving high-threat status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit historically determined variation in local credit markets to identify the impact of bank lending on innovation across Russian firms. We find that deeper credit markets increase firms' use of bank credit, their adoption of new products and technologies, and their productivity growth. This relationship is more pronounced in industries farther from the technological frontier, more exposed to import competition, and that export more. These impacts are also stronger for firms near historical R&D centers or railways and in regions with supportive institutions. Consistent with these results, credit markets contribute to economic growth in such regions. Authors have furnished a data set, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia reacted in markedly different ways to comparable upheavals in Ukraine: the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Euromaidan Revolution in 2013/2014. This paper argues that a combination of important external and internal factors led to a change in Russia's dominant national role conceptions, which contributed to Moscow's more assertive foreign policy, exemplified by divergent reactions to these two upheavals. Consequently, the paper aims to contribute to the existing scholarship on role change, demonstrating mechanisms behind such changes and examining the necessary scope conditions. The analysis reveals two types of role change: long-term, comprehensive ones that may lead to shifts in foreign policy behavior and swift changes motivated by contemporary events that result from role conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to describe the work-for-hire regime in Russia and provide the readers with practical information on the due formalization of relations between a company and its employees with regard to the intellectual property (hereinafter 'IP') that they create. We have reviewed recent high-profile cases (e.g. Rambler v NGINX, Mr. Mamichev v Interveeam LLC and Veeam Software, Laboratory Kaspersky v Cybersecurity Solutions) that reveal the most common problems related to the work-for-hire regime. Based on our analysis of the applicable legislation, court practice and doctrine, we have given some practical tips and recommendations on how to avoid widespread challenges concerning works for hire in Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the concept of human dignity is absent from the text of the European Convention on Human Rights, it is mentioned in more than 2100 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. The judges at the Court have used dignity to develop the scope of Convention rights, but also to signal to respondent states just how serious a violation is and to nudge them toward better compliance. However, these strategies reach dead ends when the Court is faced with government submissions that are based on a conception of dignity that is different from the notion of human dignity relied on by the Court. Through empirical analysis and by focusing on Russia, the country against which the term dignity is used most frequently, the paper maps out situations of conceptual contestation and overlap. We reveal how the Court strategically uses mirroring, substitutes dignity for other Convention values, or altogether avoids confrontation. In such situations, the Court's use (and non-use) of dignity becomes less about persuading states to comply with the Convention and more about preserving its authority and managing its relationship with states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document the beneficial impact of human capital transfer from banks to nonfinancial firms: firms hiring ex-bankers have higher asset and employment growth and easier access to bank loans. Using a unique employee-employer-matched data set from Russia and exogenous variation in ex-bankers' supply due to bank-branch-network restructurings, we establish the causal interpretation of these patterns. We also show that ex-bankers' human capital consists of bank-specific and banking industry expertise (with the latter being acquired through interbank connections). Firms recognize the value of ex-bankers, who receive significant salary bonuses when a new bank loan is issued to the firm (JEL G21, G32, J24). Received August 17, 2020; editorial decision January 5, 2022; by editor: Isil Erel. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Joint Statement by the Foreign Ministers of China and Russia on Certain Aspects of Global Governance in Modern Conditions of 23 March 2021 calls for "the establishment of a fairer, more democratic and rational multipolar world order." The paper inquires how constitutional theories of international organisations have in the past and present sought to contribute to world order. It identifies three waves of such theory since the 1960s. Looking in more detail at the ongoing third wave, it identifies and seeks to pull out further a constitutional model which upscales the proto-democratic practices in international organisations by strengthening forums for participation and contestation, which rectifies to the north-south imbalance inter alia rooted in the colonial heritage by involving more actors from the global south, and which tackles the global social question upfront. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symphony as a legal concept was formulated in Late Antiquity by Justinian I, a famous Byzantine Emperor, in his Novella 6 of 535 C.E. and it is readily utilized by the post-Soviet Russian Orthodox Church as the model of ideal church-state relations even at present. The question we ask in this article is if this model, in the manner it was laid down in the policy documents of the Russian Orthodox Church, is compatible (and, if so, to what extend) with the principle of the rule of secular law. This problem will be analyzed in the present paper on the example of the Church's attitude toward the constitutional principle of secularity and separation of state and church. In Russia, this principle from Article 14 of the Constitution in fact collides with the church-supported tradition of their "harmonious cooperation" which is called "symphony of powers." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do mafias operate across territories? The paper is an in-depth study of the foreign operations of a Russian mafia group. It relies on a unique set of data manually extracted from an extensive police investigation that lasted several years, including a set of phone intercepts over nine months. Using quantitative content analysis and multiple correspondence analyses (homals), the study reconstructs the activities of the group and its organizational structure in Italy. The paper shows that the core activity of the group––protecting racketeering––remains located in the territory of origin, while the Italian branch was monitoring investments in the legal economy. The structure of the group abroad indicates that a division of labour developed, alongside extensive contacts with local criminals and entrepreneurs. The paper contributes to broader debates on globalization and organized crime, moral panics, the structure of informal groups and the role of women in organized crime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the impact of multimarket competition on bank performance. Exploiting a unique data set of Ukrainian banks' branch locations, we construct three measures of multimarket contacts and find their positive effects on profitability. This finding supports the mutual forbearance hypothesis: the higher number of overlapped markets increases familiarity and similarity among multimarket rivals and makes them reluctant to compete aggressively. Further, we establish an identification strategy using the 2014 geopolitical conflict between Ukraine and Russia as an exogenous shock to banks' branch networks. Our estimates show that the impact of the conflict on the mutual forbearance associated with banks' multimarket contacts is more pronounced for shock-exposed banks compared to less exposed counterparts and thus the former experiences lower profitability after the conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutron detection using nuclear emulsions can offer an alternative in personal dosimetry. The production of emulsions and their quality have to be well controlled with respect to their application in dosimetry. Nuclear emulsions consist mainly of gelatin and silver halide. Gelatin contains a significant amount of hydrogen, which can be used for fast neutron detection. The addition of B-10 in the emulsion is convenient for thermal neutron detection. In this paper, standard nuclear emulsions BR-2 and nuclear emulsions BR-2 enriched with boron produced at the Slavich Company, Russia, were applied for evaluation of fast and thermal neutron fluences. The results were obtained by calculation from the presumed emulsion composition without prior calibration. Evidence that nuclear emulsions used in the experiment are suitable for neutron dosimetry is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pareiasaurs were one of the main clades of large herbivorous tetrapods in Middle–Late Permian continental ecosystems. Despite abundant pareiasaur material, many aspects of their biology remain poorly known. This paper provides a description of ontogenetic changes in long-bone and rib microanatomy/histology of two Upper Permian pareiasaurs from Russia, Deltavjatia rossica and Scutosaurus karpinskii. Analysis of a growth series of bones of Deltavjatia and Scutosaurus revealed rapid and cyclical growth early in ontogeny (as indicated by fast-growing fibrolamellar bone with lines of arrested growth). This was followed by a change in the growth pattern (as indicated by an outer avascular layer of lamellar bone in the cortex) and a decrease in the growth rate after 50% of maximum body size was reached in Deltavjatia and 75% in Scutosaurus (larger body sizes in Scutosaurus were attained through an extended initial period of fast skeletal growth). The study confirms that the bones of all pareiasaurs are histologically and microanatomically uniform [spongious (porous) microstructure and a very thin compact cortex] and indicate a similar growth strategy (a short initial period of rapid and cyclical growth followed by a long period of slow growth). The microanatomical characteristics of pareiasaurs do not provide a clear indication of their lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: This paper examines implementation of the 2005 federal alcohol control law in the Russian Federation. Methods: The documents on the Russian Federation federal legislation on the control of the production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, and ethyl alcohol containing products, news reports, research, and historical documents were gathered and analysed for implementation barriers. Results: Consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially spirits, has been one the most significant public health problems in Russia for many centuries. Prior attempts to control alcohol consumption have been unsuccessful, in part due to the government's reliance on alcohol revenue, and its inability to implement creative and manageable solutions in the light of the high drinking rates, Implementation of this legislation has been a challenge in Russia because of administrative oversight, lack of organizational preparation, and corruption. Conclusions: The law discussed in this paper presented a window of opportunity to ameliorate the deteriorating health status and reverse the impending mortality crisis. However. a number of barriers presented substantial setbacks toward realization of this legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section offers news briefs on issues related to collections in Netherlands. A two-day symposium was held in Amsterdam from September 28 to 30, 2000 to discuss a paper museum of the academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Rotterdam-based Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1999. A new international publication series called "Studies in the History of Collections" was launched in November 2000 to explore collecting practices in the arts and sciences.

This paper presents an analysis of environmental movements in two Eastern European societies: Hungary and Russia, based on a recently completed research project.' The analysis of the movements will also give us an opportunity to examine the extent of the development of democratic institutions in two post- socialist societies. The comparison of these two cases will also reveal the extent of diversity within the so called former `Soviet bloc' and demonstrate that generalizing about them is misleading. After a brief review of nine different movements they are compared in terms of their structure and goals, the characteristics of their participants and leaders, the extent of internal and external conflicts, and the role of the media. The different degrees of public resonance and success of the movements in both countries are a focus of the paper. The paper has several aims: apart from analysing and comparing Russian and Hungarian environmental movements and examining the extent of development of democratic institutions in these two recently `democratized' societies, it will also consider the relevance of existing western literature in the Eastern European context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Antimicrobial reistance (AMR) is one of the biggest threats to global public health. Selection of resistant bacteria is driven by inappropriate use of antibiotics, amongst other factors. COVID-19 may have exacerbated AMR due to unnecessary antibiotic prescribing. Country-level knowledge is needed to understand options for action. Objectives To review AMR in Russia and any initiatives addressing it. Identifying any areas where more information is required will provide a call to action to minimize any further rise in AMR within Russia and to improve patient outcomes. Methods National AMR initiatives, antibiotic use and prescribing, and availability of susceptibility data, in particular for the key community-acquired respiratory tract infection (CA-RTI) pathogens Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae , were identified. National and international antibiotic prescribing guidelines commonly used locally for specific CA-RTIs (community-acquired pneumonia, acute otitis media and acute bacterial rhinosinusitis) were also reviewed, plus local antibiotic availability. Insights from both a local clinician and a local clinical microbiologist were sought to contextualize this information. Conclusions Russia launched a national strategy in 2017 to prevent the spread of AMR and the WHO reports that as of 2020–21, it is being implemented and actively monitored. Reports suggest outpatient antibiotic use of antibiotics is high and that non-prescription access and self-medication are very common. Antibiotic susceptibility studies in Russia include PeHASus, a multicentre epidemiological study focusing on susceptibilities of community-acquired respiratory pathogens and international studies such as Survey of Antibiotic Resistance (SOAR), Antimicrobial Testing Leadership and Surveillance (ATLAS) and SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program. International guidelines are used to support the development of local guidelines in Russia, and for the common CA-RTIs Russian clinicians use of several country-specific local antibiotic prescribing guidelines. A standardized inclusive approach in developing local guidelines, using up-to-date surveillance data of isolates from community-acquired infections in Russia, could make guideline use more locally relevant for clinicians. This would pave the way for a higher level of appropriate antibiotic prescribing and improved adherence. This would, in turn, potentially limit AMR development and improve patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the example of Russia, we argue that financialisation in an authoritarian state can take place primarily through formation in financial sector monopoly-like state-related structures controlled by a limited circle of the irreplaceable elite. It occurs because financialisation and new financial technologies in an authoritarian state increase both the opportunities and incentives for dominance of large state-dependent institutions in the financial sector. The authoritarian state and its elite are using financial and information technology developments in accordance with their goals, adopting and enhancing some financial practices and innovations from the experience of developed countries while rejecting, distorting or slowing down others. As a result, on the one hand, within the framework of the formation of such monopoly-like institutions, financialisation is proceeding actively, the role of finance and financial relations in society is increasing everywhere and the use of new financial technologies, digitalisation and financial inclusion are expanding. On the other hand, some financial markets remain underdeveloped because either they imply a certain degree of competition, diversity, institutional quality and independence from state voluntarism, or the state and authoritarian elite have not yet fully elaborated a strategy of integrating these financial markets into the orbit of their interests. Thus financialisation in DEEs with an authoritarian political regime can strengthen and facilitate the dominance of authoritarian elites. We draw these conclusions considering the example of financialisation in Russia in the last two decades, where the banking sector is at the core of the financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the economic effects of trade sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union (EU) and its allies since the beginning of Russia's war on Ukraine. The paper presents a data-based method to estimate the impact of embargoes on specific trade flows and production in any sector and country, considering indirect linkages between sectors. The authors compare the predictions of their method with a canonical model and find comparable results. They also highlight the importance of global value chains and the heterogeneity of effects across countries and sectors. The article suggests that the approximation method is advantageous as it does not require calibrating fundamental parameters or making assumptions about general equilibrium adjustments. However, the method does rely on specific assumptions about substitution possibilities and market structure. The author suggests that the method could be further evaluated by comparing it with data on past trade embargoes and sectoral value-added growth. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper, I argue that migration responses to push factors can differ along ethnic lines. To arrive at migration as an adaptive response in which minorities engage, two processes are necessary. First, an individual making the decision to migrate must interpret ethnic tensions as a threat to her life chances, and she must evaluate her future prospects in this ethnically charged framework. Second, the option of migration must be a viable one. That is, an individual must consider them self the plausible target of the threat of diminishing life chances, conclude that an adaptive response is required, and determine that the benefits of migrating outweigh the costs. In order to explain these processes, the relational theory of ethnic politics (Hale 2008) and demographic theories of migration are employed. To test this hypothesis, an event history model is estimated using regional, household, and individual-level data from Russian censuses and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. The relationship between out-migration and regional nationalist vote share is examined as well as regional hate crimes. The findings suggest that political push factors affect minority groups differently from the ethnic majority, supporting the hypothesis that the success of ethno nationalist politics in a region signals vulnerability to ethnic minorities, influencing migration decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the commercial policy of Russia during 2008–11, a time of global financial crisis which coincided with an announced Russian modernization programme. In 2008 Russia introduced a development strategy to limit its dependence on natural resources. However, the government relied heavily on this income for the planned modernization programme. The falling price of oil in 2008–9 led to a tightened government budget constraint. This situation induced Russia towards wider use of more traditional instruments of trade policy (such as tariff policy) as well as an import substitution strategy, the creation of the Customs Union, and a pause in the WTO accession process. Russia has been found by the Global Trade Alert (GTA) initiative to be one of the main users of protectionist policies since November 2008. With the oil price recovery, from September 2010 Russia had been back in the WTO accession process on revised terms and conditions. The WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva approved the Accession Package of the Russian Federation on 16 December 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Population decline in modern day Russia is alarmingly steep: Russia loses approximately 750 thousand people each year. To combat population decline, the Russian government instituted aggressive pro-natalist policies. The paper evaluates the capacity of new policies to change women's reproductive behavior using a socio-institutionalist theoretical framework, which analyzes the gendered interaction between the states, the labor market, and family. The paper arrives to a disappointing conclusion that while efforts to improve fertility are quite aggressive, new policies do not challenge gendered hierarchies neither in public nor in private spheres, which will further depress fertility rates of Russian women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the crucial role of schools and universities in shaping the worldviews of their students, education has been a marginal topic in international relations. In a plea for more engagement with the power and effects of education, this paper analyzes the interplay of discipline and knowledge in the formation of geopolitical subjects. To this end, it employs material from ethnographic research at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, the premier university for educating future Russian elites in the field of international relations. The paper draws on Foucault to chart the ensemble of disciplinary practices producing 'docile bodies' and objective knowledge and traces how these practices are bound up with the geopolitical discourse of Russia as a great power: while they fashion the great power discourse with objectivity, disruptions in the discourse also disrupt disciplinary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores a shift from engagement to confrontation in Russia’s policy toward Georgia since the Rose Revolution. In addition to emphasizing power and security as explanations of Russia’s behavior, the paper focuses on considerations of honor and prestige. The latter are relational and a product of Russia’s perception of its ties with Western nations. Honor also plays a crucial role in Georgia’s attitude toward its northern neighbor, and the entire Caucasus area emerges as a battleground for symbolic attributes of power among larger states with capabilities to influence the region. The case of Russia–Georgia divide is important for demonstrating benefits and limitations of traditional foreign policy explanations and for learning possible ways to de-escalate dangerous bilateral conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the anti-Jewish riots in Germany and Russia from 1881 to 1882. The author analyzes how these incidents of anti-Jewish violence were assessed in the German Catholic press. The article focuses on the German newspaper "Germania." Background information on the newspaper is provided. The author reviews the response of "Germania" to the Anti-Jewish riots of 1881 in Germany and its response to similar events that took place in Russia. The article also discusses the casual factors of the anti-Jewish violence.

This paper presents two sets of arguments: one theoretical and one analytical. The theoretical arguments concern the relationship between regional ordering and systemic change. The paper questions the usefulness of the unipolar conception of the contemporary system arguing that the interaction of the Great Powers cannot be understood without reference to regional dynamics. Thus, a unipolar system implies considerable potential for U.S. hegemonic intervention at the regional level but in East Asia, we find an equilibrium constructed out of both material and normative forces, defined as a concert, which presents a considerable restraint on all powers, including the U.S. The paper then proceeds to examine these claims through an analysis of the foreign policies of the U.S., Russia, and China over the North Korean nuclear problem that emerged after 2002. It finds that China and Russia have substantive common interests arising from internal and external re-ordering in which they look to strategic partnerships, regional multilateralism, and systemic multipolarization as inter-locking processes. The paper finds that they have collaborated over the Korean crisis to prevent a U.S. unilateral solution but that this should not be construed as a success for an open counterhegemonic strategy as it was only under the constraining conditions of East Asian concert, including the dynamics within the U.S. alliance systems, that this collaboration was successful. Nevertheless, the paper concludes that regional multipolarity and systemic unipolarity are contradictory: a system that exhibits multipolarization at the regional level cannot be characterized as unipolar at the global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the theory of opportunistic cycles in a decade-old democracy— Russia—finds strong evidence of cycles, and provides an explanation for why previous literature often found weaker evidence. Using regional monthly panel data, we find that (1) the budget cycle is sizable and short-lived; public spending shifts toward direct monetary transfers to voters; (2) the magnitude of the cycle decreases with democracy, government transparency, media freedom, voter awareness, and over time; and (3) preelectoral manipulation increases incumbents' chances for reelection. The short length of the cycle explains underestimation of its size by previous literature because of low frequency data used in previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The OECD proposes to kill two birds with one stone in Russia by simultaneously improving fiscal federalism, and using the financial reform process to press for full market liberalisation. This paper scrutinises the initiative and finds it wanting because the consensus reforms advocated conflate the re-centralisation of fiscal authority with optimal ownership, property rights and effective market building, perpetuating the illusion that there are no bad market systems. The G-7 and Putin must do better. Yeltsin's mis-privatisation and mis-liberalisation, which spawned rent seeking, asset stripping, asset seizing and a disregard for profit maximising from current operations, have proved to be path dependent and need to be rectified. Putin's increasingly visible efforts to rein private property rights must also be taken into account in designing on optimal fiscal federalist regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine patterns of self-reported diagnosis of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and prevalences of algorithm/measured test-based, undiagnosed, and untreated NCDs in China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. Nationally representative samples of older adults aged ≥50 years were analyzed from wave 1 of the World Health Organization's Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (2007-2010; n = 34,149). Analyses focused on 6 conditions: angina, arthritis, asthma, chronic lung disease, depression, and hypertension. Outcomes for these NCDs were: 1) self-reported disease, 2) algorithm/measured test-based disease, 3) undiagnosed disease, and 4) untreated disease. Algorithm/measured test-based prevalence of NCDs was much higher than self-reported prevalence in all 6 countries, indicating underestimation of NCD prevalence in low- and middle-income countries. Undiagnosed prevalence of NCDs was highest for hypertension, ranging from 19.7% (95% confidence interval (CI): 18.1, 21.3) in India to 49.6% (95% CI: 46.2, 53.0) in South Africa. The proportion untreated among all diseases was highest for depression, ranging from 69.5% (95% CI: 57.1, 81.9) in South Africa to 93.2% (95% CI: 90.1, 95.7) in India. Higher levels of education and wealth significantly reduced the odds of an undiagnosed condition and untreated morbidity. A high prevalence of undiagnosed NCDs and an even higher proportion of untreated NCDs highlights the inadequacies in diagnosis and management of NCDs in local health-care systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the debate about economic reform in Russia. It argues that the state is unable to play a strong role because its apparatus is weak and corrupt, and because it does not have superior information to the private sector. In fact, where it is allowed to do so, the private sector is flourishing in response to internal and external market demand. The paper documents the changing economic structure and draws lessons from the policy mistakes of the first two years of reform. It shows that firms that were either subsidized or protected from external competition, mainly through a vastly undervalued currency, have failed to restructure themselves. Finally, it is argued that the defence industry has nearly completed its reconversion, scaling down and shifting to other activities, even though a redirection through fresh investment has yet to happen. Policy recommendations include a clean-up of balance sheets in the banking sector, possibly with state guarantees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines producer- and consumer-protection measures for a set of food commodities in three Russian oblasts. Secondary data for the period 1992–1995 show that agricultural producers were taxed but at a diminishing rate. Secondary sources for 1995, supplemented by a comprehensive household survey, reveal significant subsidisation for food staples such as bread, sugar and milk on the consumer side, which reflects attempts by regional governments to buffer the negative consequences of rapid price increases resulting from food price liberalisation in 1993. Since most of these transfers are absorbed by the wealthier segments of the population, however, more efficient alternatives should be sought. The implied producer taxation and consumer subsidisation can be attributed mainly to poor economic institutions and infrastructure, rather than to trade and sectoral policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Motivation Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) is a palaeoproteomics method for the taxonomic determination of collagen, which traditionally involves challenging manual spectra analysis with limitations in quantitative results. As the ZooMS reference database expands, a faster and reproducible identification tool is necessary. Here we present SpecieScan, an open-access algorithm for automating taxa identification from raw MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry (MS) data. Results SpecieScan was developed using R (pre-processing) and Python (automation). The algorithm's output includes identified peptide markers, closest matching taxonomic group (taxon, family, order), correlation scores with the reference databases, and contaminant peaks present in the spectra. Testing on original MS data from bones discovered at Palaeothic archaeological sites, including Denisova Cave in Russia, as well as using publicly-available, externally produced data, we achieved >90% accuracy at the genus-level and ∼92% accuracy at the family-level for mammalian bone collagen previously analysed manually. Availability and implementation The SpecieScan algorithm, along with the raw data used in testing, results, reference database, and common contaminants lists are freely available on Github (https://github.com/mesve/SpecieScan). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do states' partnerships with foreign elites influence international public opinion? During Russia's annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin strengthened its ties with far-left and far-right European parties—leading some European elites to express more explicit pro-Russian positions. This paper analyzes how these elite-level ties influence ordinary individuals' foreign policy attitudes, offering insight into the conditions under which soft power "trickles down." By leveraging public opinion data before and after the conflict in Crimea (2012–2017), and employing an estimation strategy that follows the same logic as a standard differences-in-differences strategy, I demonstrate that Russia's linkages with anti-establishment parties led to greater confidence in Vladimir Putin over time, but had limited impact on favorability toward Russia, the United States, and NATO. These findings have important implications for autocratic public diplomacy, our conceptualization of soft power, and Russian foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes an approach to the identification of optimal fine value for the Antitrust Law violation based on the analysis of incentives of economic entities to violate the law. This approach was tested with the example of the oil industry and coal industry entities of the Russian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an analysis of the way European newspapers covered the Fukushima nuclear accident, this article explores how the mass media transmit information about radiation risks from experts to the general public. The study applied a media content analysis method on a total of 1340 articles from 12 leading newspapers in 6 countries: Belgium (N=260), Italy (N=270), Norway (N=133), Russia (N=172), Slovenia (N=190) and Spain (N=315). All articles analysed were selected as being directly or indirectly related to the Fukushima accident by containing the word 'nuclear' and/or 'Fukushima' and were published between the 11th March and the 11th May 2011. The data presented here focus specifically on a cross-cultural comparison of the way the media use quantitative units. Results suggest that although experts are accustomed to communicating about radiological risks in technical language, often using quantitative units to describe the risks, mass media do not tend to use these units in their reporting. Although the study found a large variation in the measurement units used in different countries, it appeared that journalists in all the analysed countries preferred to describe radioactivity by comparing different radiation exposures, rather than reporting the actual measured units. The paper concludes with some practical guidelines for sound public communication about radiation risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article concerns the interaction between competition law and IP law. Russian legislation provides absolute immunity from extending antitrust prohibitions over the exercise of exclusive IP rights. However, this inflexible legislation does not provide any discretion for the courts, resulting in inadequate consequences and disordered judicial practice.This paper analyses the most interesting cases in Russian practice which have received an ambiguous and disputable court resolution. The divergence between the legislative model and court practice is due to the diversity of disputes that call for a wide range of solutions. Given the absence of a flexible legal framework, courts are sometimes forced to evade the legislative provisions or make inappropriate legal treatments of them.The current model of legal regulation does not facilitate economic efficiency, while unpredictable judicial practice caused by inflexible law puts rightholders in a situation of great uncertainty. In order to eliminate these imperfections, it is necessary to elaborate and implement a new model of regulation based on the optimal balance between private and public interests. This model has to comply with requirements of flexibility, effectiveness and legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the recent economic sanctions decided by the United States and the European Union against Russia may soon be expected to lead to disputes either by commercial arbitrations or sometimes also by investment arbitrations, this paper shortly outlines the procedural framework and major considerations for international arbitral tribunals, if economic sanctions are somehow relevant aspects of the dispute they have to decide. The determination of the law to be applied by arbitral tribunals with regard to economic sanctions is subject to a number of considerations and scenarios with some complexity. Not all effects and results can easily be determined by the parties and their lawyers in advance in a contract or before a given dispute at hand. Tribunals have discretion in a number of scenarios. As a rule of thumb, that discretion is smaller if the economic sanctions are provided in the procedural or substantive law directly found to be applicable to the dispute at hand. And the discretion is wider with regard to economic sanctions by third states where Article 7 of the Rome Convention has to be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1798, a case of suspected passport forgery in the new town of Gatchina brought to light an array of legal, semilegal, and totally illegal behavior when it came to tsarist Russia's documentary requirements that governed mobility. Although there had been earlier kinds of documents required for travel, in the early eighteenth century, decrees established a system of short-term passports to allow a degree of mobility within a social structure based in binding legal statuses (soslovie) that tied nearly all subjects of the tsar to their localities or their owners. This specific case demonstrates that although the tsarist state clearly viewed this passport system as a method of social control, there were several significant limits to that control. First, documents were only reliable as long as they could be taken as truthful; cases of passport forgery like this showed how difficult it was for authorities to ascertain that truth. Second, the investigation uncovered many individuals who were negotiating (or sometimes ignoring) the passport system in ways that show the real limits of tsarist control. And third, the passport system took significant effort to maintain, effort that did not necessarily always seem worthwhile to some local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic sanctions are a frequently used instrument of foreign policy. In a diplomatic conflict, they aim to elicit a change in the policies of a foreign government by damaging their economy. Sanctions, however, are also likely to affect the sanctioning country. This paper evaluates these costs, in terms of export losses, for the diplomatic crisis between the Russian Federation and 37 countries over the conflict in Ukraine that started in 2014. We first gauge the impact of the diplomatic conflict using a traditional trade framework and quantify the trade losses in a general equilibrium counterfactual analysis. Losses for the Russian Federation amount to US$53 billion or 7.4% of predicted total exports from 2014 until the end of 2015. Western sanctioning countries, however, have also been impacted with an estimated loss of US$42 billion, 0.3% of their total exports. Interestingly, we find that the bulk of the impact stems from products that are not directly targeted by Russian retaliation, an effect that we coin friendly fire – an unintended, largely self-inflicted cost for Western sanctioning countries. We investigate the underlying mechanism at the product- and firm-level data. Results indicate that the drop of Western exports has not been driven by a change in Russian consumers' preferences, but mainly by an increase in country risk affecting international transactions with Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims The study aims to investigate insofar regional differences in alcohol-induced mortality in Russia, which emerged during the early industrialization of the country, persisted over a prolonged period of time (from late nineteenth to early twenty-first century), surviving fundamental political and social changes Russia experienced. Methods Multivariate regression models with historical and contemporary data on alcohol-induced mortality in Russian regions were estimated to document the persistence of spatial patterns of mortality, as well as to identify the possible mediating variables. Numerous robustness checks were used to corroborate the results. Results Alcohol-induced male mortality in Russian regions in 1880s–1890s is significantly and strongly correlated with male mortality due to accidental alcohol poisoning in Russian regions in 2010–2012. For female mortality, no robust correlation was established. The results for male mortality do not change if one controls for a variety of other determinants of alcohol-induced mortality and are not driven by outlier regions. Consumption of strong alcohol (in particular vodka) appears to be the mediator variable explaining this persistence. Conclusions Hazardous drinking behavioral patterns, once they emerge and crystalize during the periods of fragmentation of the traditional society and the early onsets of modernization and urbanization, can be extremely persistent. Even highly intrusive policy interventions at a later stage (like those of the Soviet government) may turn out to be insufficient to change the path-dependent outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses regional productivity and technical efficiency development in Russian agriculture. We formulate a regional stochastic frontier model by assuming that producers maximise return to the outlay. We control for regional heterogeneity and endogeneity/simultaneity in input decisions, technical efficiency and technical change by employing a two-step estimation procedure. In the first step, we use the system Generalized Method of Moments approach (system GMM), which gives consistent estimates of the production technology parameters. In the second step, we apply the standard stochastic frontier approach to estimate technical efficiency and its determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper looks at Russian experience with austerity programmes since the breakdown of the former Soviet Union in 1991. Downsizing of the state was one of the major elements in a reform package designed to transform the centrally planned economy into a market one (together with deregulation, privatisation, macroeconomic stabilisation and the opening up of the closed economy). This downsizing, however, proved to be the single most important reason for the collapse of state institutions, which in turn deepened the transformational recession, contributed to the dramatic rise of income inequalities, corruption and crime, and the decline in life expectancy. The story of the successes and failures of transition is not really the story of consistent shock therapy and inconsistent gradualism. The major plot of the postsocialist transformation ‘novel’ is the preservation of strong institutions in some countries (very different in other respects—from Central Europe and Estonia to China, Uzbekistan and Belarus) and the collapse of these institutions in other countries. At least 90% of this story is about government failure (the strength of state institutions) and not about market failure (liberalisation). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background Many Russians experienced difficulty in accessing prescription medication during the widespread health service disruption and rapid socio-economic transition of the 1990s. This paper examines trends and determinants of access in Russia during this period.Methods Data were from nine rounds (1994–2004) of the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, a 38-centre household panel survey. Trends were measured in failing to access prescribed medication for the following reasons: unobtainable from a pharmacy, unable to afford and ‘other’ reasons. Determinants of unaffordability were studied in 1994, 1998 and 2004, using cross-sectional, age-adjusted logistic regression, with further multivariate analyses of unaffordability and failure to access for ‘other’ reasons in 2004.Results After 1994, reporting of unavailability in pharmacies fell sharply from 25% to 4%. Meanwhile, unaffordability increased to 20% in 1998 but declined to 9% by 2004. In 1994, significant determinants of unaffordability were unemployment and lacking health care insurance in men. By 2004, determinants included low income and material goods in both sexes; rented accommodation and low education in men; and chronic disease and disability-related retirement in women. Not obtaining medicines for ‘other’ reasons was more likely amongst frequent male drinkers, and low educated or cohabiting women. Regional and gender differences were widest in 1998, coinciding with the Russian financial crisis.Conclusions Rapid improvements in drug availability in the late 1990s in Russia are a probable consequence of a more liberalized pharmaceutical sector and an improved pharmacy network, whilst later improvements in affordability may relate to expanded health care insurance coverage and economic recovery after the 1998 crash. A significant minority still finds prescription costs problematic, notably poorer and sick individuals, with inequalities apparently widening. Non-monetary determinants of affordability indicate its partly subjective nature, however. Ongoing research into access is needed, due to recent national changes in prescription drug subsidies, and into doctor- and patient-related influences on access and prescribing for individual conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we compare ratio analysis with the data envelopment analysis approach. It is shown that using ratio analysis implies that a one multidimensional space is projected onto other subspaces many times. As a result, significant distortion of the performance assessment of units takes place. Our theoretical results are validated by computational experiments on the data taken from financial accounts of Russian banks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As China explores new directions to reform its health care system, regulated competition among both insurers and providers of care might be one potential model. The Russian Federation in 1993 implemented legislation intended to stimulate such regulated competition in the health care sector. The subsequent progress and lessons learned over these 17 years can shed light on and inform the future evolution of the Chinese system. In this paper, we list the necessary pre-conditions for reaping the benefits of regulated competition in the health care sector. We indicate to what extent these conditions are being fulfilled in the post-reform Russian and current Chinese health care systems. We draw lessons from the Russian experience for the Chinese health care system, which shares a similar economic and political background with the pre-reform Russian health care system in terms of the starting point of the reform, and analyse the prospects for regulated competition in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of radiological incident involving radiation source from a lightning rod (152Eu/154Eu), together with dose estimation for individuals exposed to ionising radiation is given in the paper. The cause of the incident was an orphaned source from a lightning rod. The dose received by individuals was assessed using a retrospective dosimetry technique, based on the information on behaviour of individuals and results of dose rate measurements in the vicinity of the source. Several people have been exposed to relatively high dose rates for an extended period of time. The conservatively estimated cumulative dose values for two categories of individuals were 50 and 40 mSv, respectively, which are significantly higher than annual dose limit for public exposure of 1 mSv. The need to identify radioactive sources incorporated in radioactive lightning rods, to maintain control and accountability and to remove and dispose of them properly along with appropriate record keeping in Serbia was highlighted. These activities would reduce the probability of occurrence of radiation incidents in Serbia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]