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

The article deals with the problem of calculating the volume calendar plan of a paper mill. The presented mathematical model and methods make it possible to schedule paper production orders between several paper machines (PM) to even their loading, devise cutting plans for each winder and arrange the order of their implementation. When forming cutting plans, orders are grouped in accordance with such parameters as grammage, roll diameter, core diameter, product type and number of layers. Deadlines and volumes in customer orders are taken into account. The cutting plans for each winder account for the allowable roll width limits and the maximum number of knives. To find the optimal schedule, a combination of the following criteria is used: minimal trim loss, minimal changes to the knives' setup and smooth transitions by product grades. Solution algorithms are presented that use a combination of the simplex method, the column generation, the branch and bound methods, the greedy algorithm and the local search procedure. We tested the solution approach on real production data from a paper mill in European Russia and obtained the production sequence that better matches deadlines in customer orders compared to the plan devised manually by production planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pulp and paper industry is in active development in the northern regions. The ecosystems of northern rivers are less capable of biological self-rinsing and are more sensitive to anthropogenic pollution. Assessment of the pollution of waterbodies is important in order to control the conservation of their bioresources. This article provides a literature review that illustrates the main impacts of wastewater of the pulp and paper industry on aquatic ecosystems. It will be useful for specialists working with monitoring systems. This paper discusses examples of the impact of wastewater of the pulp and paper industry on aquatic organisms at different levels of organization, from the molecular to the ecosystem levels. The review describes the responses of aquatic zoocenoses (zooplankton and zoobenthos) to pollution and the effects of specific substances that enter waterbodies from the effluents of the pulp and paper industry. The paper analyzes information about the transformation of bottom sediments of rivers and lakes in the wastewater zone. An overview of data is given, and the impact of thermal pollution is evaluated. This type of pollution often characterizes industrial wastewater. One of the large rivers in the European part of Russia is the Vychegda River. The rivers in its basin are important in the Komi Republic. Therefore, monitoring of the condition of the communities of aquatic organisms that inhabit it is an urgent task. This paper presents the results of hydrobiological observations carried out on the Vychegda River in the 1980s. At that time, changes in the communities of aquatic organisms in the area of pulp and paper industry were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like most northern rivers, the Vychegda River, the second largest water system in the Komi Republic and the main tributary of the Northern Dvina River, has experienced an intense anthropogenic load. Agricultural, domestic, and, to a greater extent, industrial wastewaters are currently the main polluting sources of river waters. Among the numerous enterprises operating here is Mondi Syktyvkar JSC, the largest pulp and paper enterprise in Russia, which is located on the Vychegda River banks. The composition and structure of the zooplankton communities were studied in the Vychegda River area, where the effect of wastewaters from the pulp and paper plant is observed. The aim of the research is to determine whether there is a negative impact of the conditionally treated wastewaters on the aquatic biota. As a result, a rich species composition and the quantitative development of zooplankton communities were established for the studied river area. Rotifera was the dominant group on the species richness, abundance, and biomass. This is a characteristic feature of zooplankton communities in the watercourse as a whole. The indicator species of waters with a high level of pollution were registered both at points located in the area of wastewater influence and on the background river plots. Species that are not typical to the natural waters of the river were found at points of wastewater discharge. The dominant complexes are represented by 9–15 or more species. Their composition differs in background, wastewater and downstream points. According to the state of zooplankton communities, the river waters in the studied area are conditionally clean, except for points located downstream of the wastewater discharge, where they are qualified as eutrophic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results are presented for a study of summer phytoplankton (July 2018–2020) in the middle reaches of the Vychegda River at the sites where treated wastewater is discharged from the Mondi Syktyvkar JSC pulp and paper mill. In the phytoplankton of the studied section of the river, 263 species with algal varieties from seven divisions were identified: Cyanoptokaryota, 8; Ochrophyta, 4; Rhodophyta 1; Euglenophyta, 1; Bacillariophyta, 232; Chlorophyta, 15; Charophyta, 2. Widespread, eurytopic species predominate in terms of diversity. In 3 years of research, phytoplankton species communities have demonstrated stability of the complex of dominant and structural diversity. The basis of the dominant complexes is formed by species from the genera Aulacoseira, Dolichospermum, Pandorina, Eudorina, Closterium, etc. The composition of dominants is similar for conditionally background points and the zone of wastewater discharge. A massive development of the thermophilic species of diatom Diadesmisconfervacea, an indicator of thermal pollution, was noted below the wastewater-discharge site. The total recorded number of phytoplankton in the Vychegda river at the studied stations was 1 150 000–18 000 000 cells/dm3, and the biomass was 0.01–0.29 mg/dm3. The ratio of the total abundance and biomass of phytoplankton algae and the indicator species forming the complex of dominants reflect an increase in the trophic status of the waters of the surveyed areas and a high degree of anthropogenic load on the ecosystem of the Vychegda River. Based on algo-indication, the waters of the conditional background and the receiving wastewaters at observation points were assigned to quality class III (with the quality category 3b, slightly polluted). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of 3-year measurements (2018–2020) of hydrophysical and hydrochemical indicators of the Vychegda River in places where effluent is discharged from the Mondi Syktyvkar JSC pulp and paper mill. At conditionally background stations and those exposed to wastewater, the water mineralization, content of ions of Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl–, S , N , heavy metals, petroleum products, anionic surfactants, and benz(a)pyrene were recorded in concentrations significantly lower than the MPC (MPCFI), while suspended substances, COD, Р , Fe, and Mn were in excess of the MPCFI. Studies have shown that, in connection with the modernization of the treatment facilities of Mondi Syktyvkar JSC, there has been a noticeable improvement in the wastewater quality; the environmental load on the ecosystem of the Vychegda River at discharge points decreased. No significant excess over conditionally background values was detected at a high water level in the Vychegda River (2018–2019) for all studied hydrochemical indicators at the points of effluent discharge. Degradation of the water quality was recorded during the low-water period (2020), i.e., a decrease in the degree of dilution of effluent from treatment facilities by river waters. During this period, the wastewater-discharge points exhibited a significant excess over the conditionally background values of mass concentrations of suspended substances, Cl–, S , Р , N , Stot, K, Na, and phenol, as well as the chemical oxygen demand, permanganate value, turbidity, and electrical conductivity. In terms of environmental, sanitary, and toxicological indicators, the waters of all surveyed observation stations were assigned to a water-quality class 3 of (satisfactory purity). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of a study of the species diversity and individual developmental stability of common fish species from the Vychegda River in the discharge area of treated wastewater from one of the largest forestry industries in the European, northeastern area of Russia. In 2018–2020, the European perch, roach, and bleak prevailed in the catches of a standard set of nets with a mesh size of 10 to 60 mm in the littoral zone of the monitoring sites. These species are widespread representatives of the ichthyofauna in the Vychegda River basin. White-eye bream, asp, and pike-perch were also registered; their recent appearance became possible due to the construction of canals connecting the Northern Dvina River basin with other river systems. Indicators of species diversity (the number of species, their relative abundance, and Shannon index) in areas adjacent to local timber plots were similar to those observed at monitoring sites. The integral index for the assessment of individual development, which is based on fluctuating asymmetry, indicated the absence of a negative effect on the formation of bilateral morphological structures in early ontogenesis in fish that lived both in the industrial area and in the conditionally background area. To clarify the results, an additional study should be carried out to identify physiological disorders or the accumulation of heavy metals or other pollutants in fish tissues and organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

A novel, aerobic nitrogen-fixing methylotrophic bacterium, strain 29k T , was enriched and isolated from sludge generated during wastewater treatment at a paper mill in Baikal, Russian Federation. Cells were Gram-stain-variable. The cell wall was of the negative Gram-type. Cells were curved oval rod-shaped, 0.5-0.7×1.7-3.4 µm and formed yellow-coloured colonies. Cells tended to be pleomorphic if grown on media containing succinate or coccoid if grown in the presence of methyl alcohol as the sole carbon source. Cells were non-motile, non-spore-forming and contained retractile (polyphosphate) and lipid (poly-β-hydroxybutyrate) bodies. The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone Q-10 and the predominant cellular fatty acids were C 18:1 ω7, C 19:0 cyclo and C 16:0 . The genomic DNA G+C content was 67.95 mol%. Strain 29k T was able to grow at 4-37 °C (optimum, 30 °C), at pH 6.0-8.5 (optimum, pH 6.5-7.0) and at salinities of 0-0.5% (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 0% NaCl). Catalase and oxidase were positive. Strain 29k T could grow chemolithoautotrophically in mineral media under an atmosphere of H 2 , O 2 and CO 2 as well as chemoorganoheterotrophically on methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, n-butanol and various organic acids. The carbohydrate utilization spectrum is limited by glucose and raffinose. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the newly isolated strain was a member of the genus Xanthobacter with Xanthobacter autotrophicus 7c T (99.9% similarity) and Xanthobacter viscosus 7d T (99.4 % similarity) as closest relatives among species with validly published names. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA-DNA hybridization values of 92.7 and 44.9%, respectively, of the 29k T to the genome of the most closely related species, X. autotrophicus 7c T , were below the species cutoffs. Based on genotypic, phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, it is proposed that the isolate represents a novel species, Xanthobacter oligotrophicus sp. nov. The type strain is 29k T (=KCTC 72777 T =VKM B-3453 T ).

On December 18, 2020, an expert council was held with the participation of members of the Russian Society of Cardiology, the Eurasian Association of Ther-apists, the National Society for Atherothrombosis, the National Society for Evi-dence-Based Pharmacotherapy, and the Russian Heart Failure Society. The event was devoted to the discussion of the correct use of research data of "real clinical practice" in decision making.

It is rather easy to identify the leading universities in a country, there are different established methods and indicators of excellence. Generally, it is more challenging to find 'the second best' universities which have the potential to become leaders, 'the firsts'. In Russia, such an attempt has been made. The program of 'Pillar Universities' was realized in 2016–2020, in two stages. This paper analyzes the initial stage of the project and its outcomes. We aim to investigate how the program affected the output of the universities from the bibliometric point of view. The results, obtained by bibliometric methods, are encouraging. There is an increase in publication output above the Russia's average growth. Multidisciplinarity, domestic and international collaboration also increase. Those universities which had no papers in the top journals started publishing their research there. The overall effect of the 'pillar project' is found to be positive. Bibliometrics is widely used for assessing higher education institutions and is free from local peculiarities. This allows using the observations of this study in a broader context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the assessment of woody biomass resources in Russia and the Baikal region. The analysis of the literature demonstrates that the Baikal region has considerable amounts of waste from the logging, timber processing, and pulp and paper industries (up to 220 PJ). A review of utilization technologies for woody biomass demonstrates that the existing technologies based on biomass gasification are promising for energy purposes. The gasification of biomass for small-capacity power plants has some advantages compared to its combustion. This paper considers an autonomous power system that consists of photovoltaic converters, wind turbines, storage batteries, a biomass gasification power plant, and a diesel power plant. A mathematical model used to optimize the system's structure finds the minimum of the total discounted costs for the creation and operation of the system with some constraints met. Based on mathematical modeling, the cost-effectiveness of such a power supply system is assessed for different climatic zones of the Baikal region and the coastal area of Lake Baikal. The findings indicate that the optimal solution is the integration of various renewable energy sources in hybrid power systems. The proportion of energy sources of different types in the installed capacities is found. The study demonstrates that the optimal structure of the power system can provide significant savings (the total discounted costs are reduced by almost 2.5 times compared to the option using a diesel power plant alone). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Withdrawal: The withdrawal has been agreed following concerns regarding manipulation of the peer review and publishing process. Concerns were originally raised by third parties [1, 2]. Further investigation by the publisher has found manipulation of the peer review process. The withdrawal has been agreed because the peer review of the article was compromised. [1] B. E. Perron, O. T. Hiltz‐Perron, B. G. Victor, Revealed the inner workings of a papermill, 2021. https://retractionwatch.com/2021/12/20/revealed‐the‐inner‐workings‐of‐a‐paper‐mill/ [2] A. Abalkina, Publication and collaboration anomalies in academic papers originating from a paper mill: evidence from a Russia‐based paper mill, 2022. https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.13322 The above article, published online as accepted article, prior to the version of record, on June 07, 2021 in Wiley Online Library (http://wileyonlinelibrary.com) has been withdrawn by agreement between the journal's Editor in Chief and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The above article, published online on July 2021 in Wiley Online Library https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spe.2964 has been retracted by agreement between the journal's Editor‐in‐Chief and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed following concerns regarding manipulation of the peer review and publishing process. Concerns were originally raised by a third party (1). Further investigation by the publisher has found manipulation of the peer review process. The retraction has been agreed because the peer review of the article was compromised. The authors disagree with this retraction. Abalkina, A. (2022). Publication and collaboration anomalies in academic papers originating from a paper mill: evidence from a Russia‐based paper mill https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.13322 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to address the possible role of the Eastern European Orthodox Church as an alternative channel to ensure fruitful negotiations to end the Russo-Ukrainian war that has still ongoing since 2022. As the majority religion in Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe as a whole, the Orthodox branch of Christianity has a transnational influence on its followers, including prominent political figures in the aforementioned territories. Utilizing qualitative research methods, this paper is written to provide arguments about whether the Orthodox Church, with its immense presence in the belligerents' spiritual beliefs, will be able to be employed as a channel to end the Russo-Ukrainian war. In this paper, analysis is conducted through the usage of J. W. McDonald's "The Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy" (2012) journal article about multi-track diplomacy and D. Johnston's Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik (2003) book about faith-based diplomacy to gauge the Orthodox Church's potential as a channel of diplomacy between Russia and Ukraine. This paper finds that overall, the Orthodox Church fails to fulfil the criteria that Johnston (2003) posits; one of the most fatal is the organization's inability to reconcile the belligerents' deep historical wounds. Due to the Orthodox Church's traditional role that has always been closely tied to the Russian government, its capability to build an acceptable negotiation channel is severely impeded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper presents a detailed and insightful bibliometric analysis of environmental education research in Russia offering an integrated view of progress, impact and main actors of the field. Fundamental information was gained from journal articles, conference papers and other significant academic distributions that were included in the Scopus database. These included measurements involving issues like distributions and references/year, neighboring country comparisons, authorship patterns, affiliations and sources of financial support etc. The analysis of Russian exploration of environmental education presented in the paper provides an outline for further work in a crucial area Russia can be effective here, drawing on its experience with this demand to contribute to the development of environmental education and global sustainability efforts in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that a prestige-humiliation dynamic is a systems-level force that shapes state behavior. Connecting psychological factors to structural realism, we observe the following: the more powerful a state becomes, the more it could seek to overturn past humiliation through aggressive prestige-seeking acts. This is done to reassert its power and status to erase past humiliation and achieve prestige even at the expense of others. Three historical examples will be discussed: Nazi Germany's erasure of the Treaty of Versailles, China's Century of Humiliation, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's expansion into Eastern Europe against Russia. The paper will then define face-saving behavior, allowing a competitor to preserve prestige and avoid humiliation as a way to deescalate tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global energy sector is in a period of transition, during which time it is expected that renewable and low-carbon energy sources, such as wind and solar, will replace traditional fossil fuels, including oil, gas, and coal. The energy transition is happening not only to limit the environmental impact of fossil fuel production and consumption but also to ensure energy security, reliability, access, affordability, and sustainability. The importance of the energy transition has been amplified by recent events, notably the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Economic, financial, and trade sanctions against Russia, and in particular its oil and gas industry, have forced countries to find new suppliers in the short term, but also to investigate new and more sustainable sources to guarantee long-term energy security. Given the importance of energy, it is perhaps not unexpected that there is a considerable body of recent academic literature, particularly over the last 4–5 years, studying what industries, consumers, governments, and markets can do to help bring about a faster energy transition. In this paper, we provide a review of the literature that pertains to the economic aspects of the energy transition. While our initial search of the literature is targeted at uncovering all relevant articles on the subject, we focus most of our discussion on the most influential articles in prominent journals and articles published in this journal—Energies. This review is intended to help identify active topics and potential research gaps and provide future direction, so we hope it will prove useful to the readers and authors interested in this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Soft Computing technique is one of the essential problems solving techniques for the researchers present in the world. Compared to other issues solving techniques, the Soft Computing domain gives outstanding performance, so the researchers are concentrating the Soft Computing domain for solving problems. Soft Computing domain categorizes into many sub-domains, like Neural Networks, Machine Learning, and Genetic Algorithm. Through this paper, we considered to study the impact produced by the Institutions as well as authors in the domain of Soft Computing from the year 1999 to 2019 for PubMed database. From the overall study, we found that China has made more number of publications, author productivity, and influential authors. Some countries, like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, with minimum author productivity and minimum publications from the Asian continent in the Soft Computing-related domains. From the research, we determined that china dominates in terms of Institutions wise and Author productivity in the field of Soft Computing domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the main features of digital repression in Russia, especially in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The repression of digital activism is not a new phenomenon in Russia; however, it gained fresh momentum during the Russian-Ukrainian war. Security has been used as a pretext to expand the state's authority at the cost of individuals' rights and freedoms. To control political narratives, suppress online dissent and surveil regime critics, the government has significantly tightened the national legislation through its media regulator, Roskomnadzor. The aftermath of the war, harsh sanctions and increased anti-regime movements have also deepened Russia's aspirations toward 'digital sovereignty'. Meanwhile, regardless of a number of important initiatives in this direction, domestic digital space still remains an ambitious goal to be fulfilled. This paper concludes that, along with other devastating consequences, the war in Ukraine will provoke further digital repression in Russia aimed at achieving the Kremlin's goal of "digital sovereignty". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study builds on the recent literature by investigating how various types of African stock markets responded to the Russia-Ukraine crisis (commonly referred to as the black-swan event). The empirical analysis used in this paper centred on event study analysis, a statistical technique used to measure the impact of a specific event. The findings show that the black-swan event had a significant negative impact on African stock markets (14/20), with stocks having a negative abnormal return on the event day, and out of this, nine stocks' abnormal returns are statistically significant. These include Safaricom Kenya, Commercial International Bank, Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco Casablanca Index, Egyptian Exchange 30, Nairobi All Share Index, AVI Equity, MCB Group Ltd, FTSE/JSE All Share, Delta Corp. Ltd, Stock Exchange of Mauritius, Tunisia Stock Exchange, Tanzania All Share Index, and Banque de Tunisie. Furthermore, the study discovers that African stock markets reacted heterogeneously to the impact of the crises, while some stocks were severely affected, some were minimally affected. The study concludes that African stock markets should build a resilient market capable of withstanding external shock and reducing the risk of contagion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the resolution of the problem of risk management in a high-risk market environment. The goal of this paper was to study the experience of and prospects for the use of responsible innovations as tools for managing the financial risks of high-tech companies' projects for their sustainable development (using the example of companies in Russia's IT sphere in 2022–2023). We used the SEM method to study the daily statistics of the Moscow Exchange in 2022–2023. As a result, we quantitatively measured the financial risks of Russian companies in the IT sphere in 2022–2023. The studied case experience of the IT sphere in 2022 confirmed that Russian high-tech companies actively implement responsible innovations based on ESG projects. Our main conclusion is that the financial risks of high-tech companies are reduced in the case of the implementation of responsible innovations. Therefore, it is advisable to implement responsible innovations for the sustainable development of high-tech companies in a high-risk market environment. The theoretical significance of our conclusions lies in the substantiation of the synergetic effect of financial risk management with the help of responsible innovations. The scientific novelty and contribution of this paper to the literature consist in its clarifying the sectorial (in the IT sphere) and market (in a high-risk market environment) specifics of managing the financial risks to companies. We also disclosed a poorly studied and largely unknown unique and leading experience of managing the financial risks of Russian high-tech companies in 2022–2023. The practical significance of our recommendations is that the compiled scenario can be used as a strategic benchmark for the most complete development of the potential of the sustainable development of Russian high-tech companies in 2024. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper deals with types and actors of entrepreneurship in and around academia in Russia, as well as with institutional settings of the entrepreneurial activity of academic faculty. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a series of semi-structured interviews using the purposive snowball method (2022–2023). The respondents are either engaged in different kinds of entrepreneurship in and outside universities in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod or experts in entrepreneurship in and around academia. Findings: A double mixed embeddedness driven approach to the typology of diverse forms of entrepreneurship in and around academia are shown in the context of the temporality as well as of the micro-, meso- and macro-level institutions, such as the low demand in innovations in the economy; uncertainty of property rights; limited interest of university administration in academic entrepreneurs or its focus solely on students' entrepreneurship; and necessity entrepreneurship motives on the micro-level. The research limitations of the study are the small number of observations and the localisation of the panel in only one country. Research limitations/implications: The research limitations of the study are the small number of observations and the localisation of the panel in only one country. Practical implications: The "Special Military Operation" and its consequences would hinder bottom-up academic entrepreneurship in the country, while pushing universities to launch R&D with the big industry, and forcing many faculties to non-academic entrepreneurship. Originality/value: For the first time, the broad variety of entrepreneurial activities of academic staff including the specifics of non-classical forms of entrepreneurship in and around academia and their embeddedness into different contexts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The fundamental objective of the study is to characterise the features that accompany ESG risk management processes in Polish companies financing green investments with a bank credit. Design approach: The study focuses on the observation of changes occurring in the concept and processes of ESG risk management following the so-called Paris Agreement of 2015. The EU regulations standardising the ESG risk management process in companies and banks have been analysed, indicating the differences resulting from them. The inclusion of ESG risks both in creditors and credit recipients is achieved through various channels, determining the extent, and expected outcomes of green investments. Without a doubt, the issue has been receiving considerable research attention in many papers since the energy crisis caused by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. However, in light of EU regulatory changes and the increased interest of business entities in green financing, uncertainties, and research problems are on the rise in this area. An evident limitation of the conducted research is the lack of empirical data completing the knowledge on the effects of ESG strategies both domestically and in EU member states. Therefore, the paper draws on questionnaire surveys conducted by the authors, as well as on the findings of various reports published on the subject. Findings: The research shows that EU regulations increase the security of financing green investments in both companies and banks. The concept of sustainable development and ESG risk management associated with it have been severely curtailed through their introduction. Nevertheless, there is a fairly substantial area of uncertainty associated with the process of financing green investments. The study analyses its determinants indicating that internal ESG risk management procedures of companies and banks do not eliminate the external risks of financing corporate green investments. Originality/value: The conducted research undoubtedly broadens the knowledge about the role and significance of ESG risk in the green investment financing process. The analysis of studies relating to ESG risk, taking into consideration EU documents, contributed to exposing unexplained, debatable, and unsolvable issues. The questionnaire survey as well as the secondary data obtained made it possible to verify the number of common opinions and statements, along with the main hypothesis of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at balancing the interests of business and society in the digital economy, to reduce the social risks of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The goal of this paper is to study the experience and prospects of the humanisation of AI through the improvement of the practice of corporate social responsibility in Russia. By the example of the experience of Russian regions in 2021, we use econometric modelling to prove that the digital regional economy has a large potential in the sphere of humanisation of AI. The potential for the humanisation of AI in the digital economy of Russian regions is determined by responsible innovations, responsible production and logistics, as well as responsible marketing and sales, which contribute to the implementation of SDGs 9–12. The theoretical significance of the paper lies in its presenting smart region as a socio-economic environment for the humanisation of AI. The scientific novelty of the paper lies in its offering a new—meso-level—view of the humanisation of AI. The advantages of the new view include, first, consideration of socio-economic conditions for the humanisation of AI in a region; second, the most precise identification and correct measuring of the consequences of humanisation of AI for the quality of life in a region. The practical significance of the research results consists in the fact that the new proposed approach to the humanisation of AI, which implies public administration of this process at the level of a region, allows accelerating the considered process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The distinction between formality and informality has been a topic central for many scholarly fields. Without rejecting the usefulness of this distinction, the authors argued that instead of analyzing an empirical situation in terms of what is formal and what is informal, it could sometimes be fruitful to focus on what is stable and what is fluid. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports the results of review and analysis of secondary sources on the distinction between formality and informality, followed by a conceptualization of an alternative distinction between fluidity and stability. This conceptualization was inspired by a science and technology studies (STS) understanding of relations, and was assessed through applying it to a case of patient organizations' participation in patient councils in Russia. Findings: Stability and fluidity do not map neatly into formality and informality; rather, the stability and fluidity cut across these categories. The authors propose a view of both stability and fluidity as kinds of relations between elements of the societal fabric. The distinction proposed here could be especially fruitful when applied to analyses of (1) complex bureaucracies where formal requirements are extensive and potentially in conflict with each other and (2) oppressive situations where significant power imbalances exist. Originality/value: Instead of providing yet another line of demarcation between formality and informality, this paper proposes a shift in attention to what is stable and what is fluid. This novel distinction can help not only in discerning how things actually work but also in bringing to the fore hitherto unnoticed forms of creativity, responsiveness and inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2022, the Russian forest sector was severely affected by the government's ban on the export of unprocessed timber and trade sanctions imposed by several countries. It is generally recognized that the regions of the Russian North-West are the most affected by trade barriers that have emerged. Against this background, the impact of bilateral trade restrictions on timber companies in the Asian part of Russia is not discussed. Nevertheless, the forest industry is an important sector of the Siberian economy that has an economic, social and environmental impact on the life of local communities. This paper analyzes the differences among Siberian timber companies in their response to the crisis depending on three factors: industrial specialization, scale of revenue and regional location. The results show that in 2022 the highest median revenues and net profits were generated by small firms that were focused on the domestic market and benefited from reduced competition due to sanctions. There is also evidence that spatial heterogeneity in the response to the crisis may be due to the different support measures of regional authorities and the proximity of the region to border points. We argue that the current conditions may become a new driver for the timber industry development, aimed at the growth of added value and expansion of domestic demand for wood products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Important nodes can determine the internal structure of complex networks and reveal the internal relationships of real-world systems, and identifying key nodes in complex networks is one of the important research areas of complex network science. As the king of commodities, changes in the price of gold significantly impact the economic development of various countries. Especially in the early stages of the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine, the price of gold futures has been greatly impacted, and the systemic risks are gradually spreading. In this paper, a gold future price series is mapped into a visibility graph (VG), the characteristics of the gold price time series and key points-in-time, have been explored from the perspective of complex network. First, according to the data structure characteristics of gold futures, this paper converts the closing prices of gold futures of the New York Mercantile Exchange into a complex network through the VG model. Then, by using the complex network model to further delve into the price of gold futures, it is found that the degree distribution of the gold futures network follows a power-law distribution, and has obvious scale-free characteristics. Finally, this paper uses the visual network node shrinking algorithm and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) analysis method to identify the key nodes of the gold futures visual map to find the key time nodes in the timeline of gold futures market. Analysis of the key time nodes of this market by four methods reveals that the repetition rate of the key time nodes in the methods' top 10 ranking is as high as 82.5%, indicating that the results obtained in this paper are robust. This study introduces a new model to describe the characteristics of gold futures price series, one which can find key time nodes in gold futures prices and provide potential help for predicting gold futures prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lingering COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine have wreaked havoc on the global oil supply chain. The current disruption of the oil supply chain and the rapidly growing energy demand created unprecedented oil shortages and raised the oil price beyond the affordable level. As worldwide oil price hikes continue, there is an urgent need for developing alternative energy sources, such as smart rural energy. Despite its enormous potential as a viable alternative to traditional fossil fuel-based energy sources, smart rural energy has never been fully utilized in society. The limited use of smart rural energy may be related to its lack of commercialization, which could have created more eco-friendly and cost-efficient alternative energy sources. This paper assesses the eco-friendliness and cost-efficiency of smart rural energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass, and hydropower for the first time. This paper is also one of the first studies that intends to develop viable strategic plans for commercializing smart rural energy using strategy maps, which subsequently helps increase public awareness of renewable energy by creating visual communication tools that convey the benefits of smart rural energy commercialization to multiple stakeholders, including government entities, business communities, and energy consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) and hedging ratios between Dow Jones markets and oil, gold and bitcoin. Using daily data, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war. We employ the DCC-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) and asymmetric DCC (ADCC)-GARCH models. Design/methodology/approach: DCC-GARCH and ADCC-GARCH models. Findings: The most of DCCs among market pairs are positive during COVID-19 period, implying the existence of volatility spillovers (Contagion-effects). This implies the lack of additional economic gains of diversification. So, COVID-19 represents a systematic risk that resists diversification. However, during the Russia–Ukraine war the DCCs are negative for most pairs that include Oil and Gold, implying investors may benefit from portfolio-diversification. Our hedging analysis carries significant implications for investors seeking higher returns while hedging their Dow Jones portfolios: keeping their portfolios unhedged is better than hedging them. This is because Islamic stocks have the ability to mitigate risks. Originality/value: Our paper may make a valuable contribution to the existing literature by examining the hedging of financial assets, including both conventional and Islamic assets, during periods of stability and crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes conflict resolution strategies in public procurement in two transition economies, Russia and Kazakhstan, based on a supplier survey. The results show that 25% of suppliers in Kazakhstan and 32% of suppliers in Russia said preferred to resolve all public procurement conflicts through negotiations with the procurer without involving a third party represented by the regulator and/or the judicial system. The findings also revealed that Russian suppliers, potentially affiliated with procurers, are less likely to encounter conflict situations. The attitude to the practice of "predetermined choice," when the procurer selects a supplier before the formal procurement procedure, was used as an indirect indicator of such affiliation. In addition, the empirical analysis shows that, in both countries, suppliers who are not inclined to trust the court and indicate high costs of participation in litigation are more likely to use the strategy of direct negotiations to resolve procurement conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Based on the evidence of Russia's activity in Latin America and Africa, the paper explores the country's lending policies as part of the country's economic statecraft. Russia joined the group of countries that provide loans to other governments only quite recently, using the flow of resources from oil sales. As a latecomer, Russia and its companies target states with markets unoccupied by Western competitors. Russia even supports regimes with low credibility and provides them with political and economic support. Because of this high-yield but also high-risk strategy, it faces problems and losses in countries such as Venezuela or Libya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the biggest European conflagrations after the World War II constitutes Russian's unprovoked attack on Ukraine which begun in 2014 and evolved in a full scale war in February 2022. Despite the fact that it represents an armed conflict between two actors, it is difficult to classify it as pure conventional or unconventional war. The main goal of the paper is to reveal the extent to which conflict can be classified as conventional since both sides have been using a long range of elements of unconventional war. Using the historical and analytical method, the paper emphasizes that the conflict cannot be classified fully conventional or unconventional as the actors use a mixture of both to reach their military and political objectives. The scope of our paper limits the research to the Russian military interventions unfolding during the last two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]