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Theoretical research indicates that foreign interference, and even allegations thereof, cause long-term negative effects: they erode trust, damaging the bilateral relationship, and lead to a greater polarization of the political system and society due to the securitization of the relationship with the presumed interferer. The article examines the case of how the Australian government and society have reacted to the perceived attempts of interference by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It tests theoretical hypotheses by answering the question of what are the implications of the above-mentioned issue for Australia - China relations and Australia’s politics. The study has identified that the rhetoric about foreign interference by the PRC into Australia’s internal affairs has been publicly attributed to a complex of attempts at unwanted influence not only in politics but also in other domains such as society, economics, education and mass media. This issue served as a critical juncture in initiating a downward trend in bilateral relations by significantly eroding Australia’s trust in China and public opinion about it as well as by prompting the Australian government to reassess its policy vis-à-vis the PRC against the background of challenging geopolitical landscape of the Asia-Pacific. The securitization of cross-border links with China has become a notable phenomenon. As a result of these events as well as other foreign policy factors, Australia - China relations deteriorated significantly. The Australian government promptly took a hard stance against the perceived foreign interference, becoming the first to adopt a special legislation to combat it. This issue was instrumentalized in political competition, especially by the Liberal Party of Australia. However, there has been no polarization of the Australian political system and society. The result has been a broad public and bipartisan consensus on the need for a greater transparency and public scrutiny over the links with China, as well as the establishment of an effective system to counter foreign interference. The Australian case demonstrates that the instrumentalization of the interference issue may lead not to a polarization but, on the contrary, to a domestic consensus over standing up to a perceived threat.

The article focuses on the theoretical and practical explanations of political and economic processes in the “post-Western” international reality. Proceeding from the assumptions of the complex system theory, the authors prove the necessity to use already established analytical approaches in combination with the newly developed ones to be able to understand and forecast the spatial-temporal evolution of the international system as a complex system. International political economy and world regional studies now investigate the empirical aspects of working out the most competitive and simultaneously most stable socio-political and politicaleconomic model of development. These studies also search for the ways national versions of development can become closer to this model and analyze to what extent regional/national models may differ from it without losing their international competitiveness. Exploring the evolution of the international system and political and economic transformations in the world leading states the authors conclude that a polycentric world cannot sustain a growing geopolitical confrontation and struggle for the geopolitical infl uence over the buffer areas. The polycentric international system requires a consensual elaboration of mutually benefi cial regional policies aimed at building transregional links between various regional areas. Reducing the instability in its regional and national segments the international system will move towards its overall greater stability. The authors further support this assumption analyzing transregional projects in Eurasia and the AsiaPacific region.

A Series of Publications in Japanese Studies: History, Politics, Foreign Policy, International Relations, Russia-Japan Relations and Japanese Studies in Russia.

The article focuses on major dimensions, achievements, challenges and prospects of relations between Russia and East Asia. Strategic importance of the region is shaped by East Asia's increasing role in world politics and economy as well as by its appeal for Russia's modernization agenda. Russia's great power status rests upon the effectiveness of its East Asian policy and development model of Siberia and the Russian Far East. Russia's positions in East Asia have improved substantially over the 2000s. However, its involvement in regional economic interaction is still insignificant and Russia cannot be regarded as a full-fledged regional player in this domain. Russian-Chinese strategic partnership has been the axis of Russia's East Asian foreign policy, though overdependence on China threatens Russia's independent policy in the region and encourages Russia to search for ways to diversify its ties. Russia's national interests reside in multivector policy, aimed at developing substantive relations not only with China but also with Japan, South Korea, ASEAN (Vietnam in the first place) and India along with Russia's involvement in the resolution of Korean nuclear crisis. The rise of China and the US counter-offensive have resulted in a changing strategic environment in East Asia. A need for balancing between the US and China has brought about ASEAN countries' desire to welcome Russia as a "balancer" or an "honest player" in the region. It corresponds with Russia's course on playing a greater role in regional cooperation and integration. Russia's improving ties in political, economic, energy and security dimensions have the potential to contribute to the stability of the emerging polycentric regional order in East Asia and development of Russia's regions of Siberia and the Far East.

According to the World Health Organization, the most common (up to 90% of cases) hematological pathology is anemia, a condition characterized by a decrease in the level of hemoglobin in the blood due to a decrease in the total number of red blood cells or a violation of hemoglobin synthesis, which can have serious consequences for the body, such as decreased immunity, impaired respiratory and metabolic processes. Currently, it is necessary to improve the methods of prevention and treatment of anemia. To test new drugs for these purposes, it is necessary to create new models, including on laboratory animals. The aim of the study was to develop experimental models of iron deficiency (IDA) and hemolytic anemia (HA) on laboratory animals. The objects of the study were sexually mature male laboratory rats of the Wistar breed, aged 7 months and weighing 260 ± 20 g. 38 animals were involved in the experiment (for IDA n= 24, for HA n= 14). Laboratory animals were kept in the same external conditions for 3-4 individuals in a cage. To simulate IDA, rats were subcutaneously injected with the drug “Desferal”. To simulate GA, rats were intraperitoneally injected with the drug “Hydrochloric acid phenylhydrozine”. At each stage, blood was taken by cutting off the tip of the tail. A detailed blood test was performed on a hematological analyzer “Heska Element HT5”. As a result, it was found that when the drug “Desferal” was administered at concentrations of 125 and 250 mg / 100g per animal weight, hematological changes were observed in rats, such as an increase in red blood cells, platelets, leukocytes by stage 2 and a decrease to control values by stage 4. When the drug “Hydrochloric acid phenylhydrozine” was administered, hematological changes were detected in rats only within the experimental group. There was an increase in the indicators of erythrocytes, platelets, leukocytes by stages 2 and 3 and a decrease to control values by stage 4. Thus, when the studied drugs were administered in the presented dosages in vivo, a change in the hematological parameters of the blood was detected in the direction of an increase in their number due to adaptation to the effects of substances.

Objective: Acute graft-versus-host-disease (aGVHD) develops in 10-80% of allo-HSCT patients. More than half of all aGVHD cases are refractory to first-line therapy with steroids. We hypothesized that bowel wall thickness at the time of aGVHD diagnosis could be an early sign of steroid-refractory aGVHD with gut involvement., Method: Our prospective study included 85 patients with hematological malignancies who had undergone allo-HSCT. We used an inexpensive, widespread and simple method of transabdominal ultrasonography to examine bowel wall thickness in patients suspected to have gut aGVHD., Results: Descending colon wall thickness was significantly greater in patients with gut aGVHD later found to be steroid-refractory than in patients with steroid-sensitive gut aGVHD, with AUC-0.73 (95% CI 0.58-0.87, p = 0.013). We showed that bowel wall thickness could predict the steroid-refractoriness of aGVHD., Conclusion: Transabdominal ultrasonography could be used as a marker of steroid-refractory aGVHD with gut involvement after allo-HSCT., (© 2021. Japanese Society of Hematology.)