Epifanova Natalia

The unique geographic location of Russian civilization combined with exceptional natural and climatic factors along with interregional variations in nationality, religion, and culture results in a significant degree of heterogeneity within Russia’s regional border space; however, we can find similarities in economic development in some border regions. In such circumstances, it is especially pertinent to develop a typology of border regions that considers the details of the mutual influence between the state border and the border region, as well as the impact of regional development on the state border. However, there is also mutual determination regarding the economic development of the border regions between the two neighboring countries.The article defines the concept of comlimitism as the foundation for the typology of border regions to describe such interregional interactions for the border regions of two neighboring states. Using the comlimitism principle, the author classifies border regions into five categories based on the type and strength of their economic ties.The conclusion drawn is that the entire range of border interregional (interstate at the level of border cooperation) ties and the various ways they interact must be considered when forming the federal center’s targeted regional policy.

The article discusses the factors, which determine production location according to spatial theories. The idea of these theories, particularly in Russian literature, was set forth during a time when these areas had not been considered in regional economic studies. Given the increasing attention to border regions in both domestic and foreign sources, we need to understand how these regions fit into basic methodological approaches. The article pays particular attention to such theories as W. Christaller's theory of central places and A. Loesch's theory of the organization of economic space. These two approaches provide a relatively complete explanation of the peculiarities and regularities of the spatial organization of border regions' economies. However, they have limitations in the analysis of the development process for the economies of border regions, and in developing regional policy instruments. There is no theory that fully explains the regularities of the economies in border regions. The adaptation of regional economics methods to such a complex and ambiguous research object like a border region can deepen understanding of its specifics.

The article considers the specifics of border regions since these territories require attention not only in the framework of regional but also foreign economic policy. Existing inter-regional inequality results in the fact that the border regions of the Russian Federation differ significantly in terms of both the level of economic development and the degree of impact on regional economies. The article presents the author's methodology for assessing the index of the border position of the regions of the Russian Federation and ranking the areas by their border position. The basis of the methodology is the works of Russian and foreign researchers on the regional economy, economic-statistical methods, geoinformation, and cartographic methods. The author has ranked the regions according to the obtained assessments. The analysis shows the need to form a conceptual approach to the study of border regions, considering them from the perspective of mutual conditionality of the border region of a given country, the shared state border, and the possibilities of cross-border interaction, based on the features of economic development of the border region of the neighboring state. The study results can be used to improve the general approaches to implementing regional policy concerning the border regions of the Russian Federation. The proposed methodology will increase the efficiency of econometric estimates for studying various relationships and factors describing the economies of border regions.

The article studies the necessity and features of transformation of the educational system under conditions of accelerated development in the digital economy. Particular attention in the context of this transformation is given to significance and possibilities of digital literacy, which forms the whole complex of fundamentally new requirements for all participants in the education system. The authors argue that the current stage of development of the digital economy requires the education system not only to digitalize its individual elements and links, but to apply a fundamentally new integrated approach that would transform the education system while taking into account new goals, structure and content of the educational process. The authors define digital literacy as the ability to form and apply educational content through digital technologies. The article gives particular emphasis on the significance and potential of individualizing the educational trajectory and the concept of continuing education. The authors consider the main factors in the development and achievement of the level of digital literacy, considering the requirements that the digital economy is currently imposing on the educational system.

Offset obligations of the exporter are a foreign trade restriction in fact for him. Nevertheless, in view of the specifics of markets where offset agreements are applied, and because offset obligations may include extensive foreign economic responsibilities than regular trade, offset deals can be seen as an instrument of international trade policy which has a positive effect for both importers and exporters. The subjects of research in this article are the possibilities and limitations of the application of offset agreements as an instrument of international trade policy. The purpose of this article is to investigate the economic nature of offset agreements and to determine the potential of offset agreements for Russia in terms of the effectiveness of this international trade mechanism in the direction of increasing the competitiveness of the Russian economy in world markets. The main methodological study in this article is the scientific work of Russian and foreign scientists, Russian and international legal acts related to the possibilities of applying offset agreements, as well as studies of specialized international organizations. In modern conditions, international trade is acquiring new, deeper forms, since in some areas, especially those accompanied by accelerated innovative development, buyers are striving to take part in the production and development of new high-tech products themselves, thus gaining access to new technologies and foreign investments.

The article is devoted to the generalization of the experience in formation of regional anti-corruption programs and the identification of the features of their implementation in practice. Also the problem of correlation of regional programs and anticorruption activity of local self-government bodies is considered. It is shown that at the municipal level the methods and directions for counteracting corruption are similar to those used by the authorities at the regional level. Both negative and positive consequences of a joint application of regional and municipal anti-corruption programs were investigated. The main directions, organizational problems of implementation of regional anti-corruption programs, peculiarities of personnel work in the framework of counteraction to corruption at the regional and local levels are determined. The article also highlights such major problem areas of counteracting corruption in the frame of personnel work in the system of state and municipal service, as 1) anti-corruption declaration; 2) solving the problem of conflicts of interest in the system of state and municipal service; 3) introduction of anticorruption standards into the anti-corruption system. Based on the analysis of the practice of implementing anti-corruption programs at the regional and local levels, the author of the article proves that further improvement is needed in the direction of systematization and institutionalization, more coherent coordination of anti-corruption activities between the levels of the subjects of the Russian Federation and local self-government bodies, as well as the implementation of system-wide measures laid by the federal legislation.

Recent studies of prohibitions and restrictions on public service, related to compliance with anti-corruption requirements, need to develop uniform methodological approaches to ensuring the work of units responsible for the prevention and combating corruption in the system of state and municipal management. The present topic is poorly understood in contemporary Russian literature, although the need to study the restrictions and prohibitions related to state civil service is obvious. First of all it is dictated by necessity of updating of the system of state and municipal administration in accordance with the new rational forms and methods of organizing of the public administration. Analysis of prohibitions and restrictions in the public administration system allows us to work out an acceptable algorithm for their implementation in order to minimize corruption manifestations in the system of state and municipal management. A special role in this issue is the study of the experience of implementing the system of prohibitions and restrictions imposed on civil servants in the current Russian legislation. The article is devoted to the problem of practical experience in the implementation of the requirements for prohibitions and restrictions related to public service. This experience is analyzed on the example of Novosibirsk region. A number of practical problems of building a new system for presenting of income statements, as well as carrying out inspections of these statements are revealed.

The article is dedicated to anti-corruption policy of the customs authorities of the Russian Federation. It is shown that this policy has been implemented for a long time and involves a significant number of steps and transformations. The author analyzes the compliance of the anti-corruption measures with the main ideas of the Arusha Declaration of the WTO. It is shown that the current anti-corruption policy does not meet the basic principles and rules of the WTO.