Vol. 20 No. 1 (2018)

This analytical review is devoted to the 9th Gaidar Forum, which was held at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. The article observes the key issues discussed in various sections. During the forum, the main topics and major problems of modern socio-economic development were discussed (setting priorities in the sphere of economic policy, stimulating economic growth, efficient use of natural resources, fiscal and tax policy, human capital, digitalization and artificial intelligence, globalization issues, health, education, interagency cooperation, etc.). Major events were expert discussions on the Trianon Dialogue, as well as the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Modern global economic conditions, the design of a «new globalization» create great opportunities for the formation and development of new political, social, economic models. The rapid development of IT-technologies, digitalization and, at the same time, increased competition determine the nature of these changes. Along with new opportunities, new risks are also emerging, issues of economic growth and integration are being considered against the background of the challenges of the new information society. The journal ‘Public Administration' traditionally acts as one of the information partners of the Forum and covers in detail the discussions held on its platforms.

The article gives an overview of several events of the Gaidar forum, in which the problems of state and municipal governance were discussed: the ‘open dialogue' on January 16, ‘Efficiency of budget expenditures as a mirror of effective public administration', expert discussion ‘Year of implementation of project management in government: first results and lessons learned', expert discussion ‘Human Capital in the State and Municipal Service: Values and Development' and ‘Open Dialogue' ‘Modern Challenges of the State Governance' on January 17. The author took in-depth interviews with domestic and foreign experts of the forum, who supplemented and developed the topic of improving the administrative apparatus and personnel policy. During the forum, government experts shared their experiences, told about what they managed to do during 2017. However, the general mood was critical: despite the measures taken and the positive results achieved, in general, state and municipal government in Russia are far from ideal, there are still many problems that need to be worked on. The speakers, including members of the Government of the Russian Federation, heads of ministries and authorities, regions of the Federation and major universities, agreed that it was necessary to continue reforming the system of administrative power in the country. The plans of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation for further steps in this direction were presented.

In the article the main features of the process of introduction of information technologies in personnel work in the state civil service of the Russian Federation are considered. To date, the development and implementation of information and communication technologies in the activities of state bodies, the creation of conditions for the objective, qualitative and open selection of candidates for the posts of the state civil service, as well as the automation of their accounting, are of great importance. The practice of implementing the federal legislation on the openness of information about admission to the federal service and civil service of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to ensure the constitutional rights of citizens for equal access to public service and job growth on competitive basis confirms the need for introducing unified approaches to the formation and placement of information about vacant posts and creation of personnel reserves in state bodies. The use of modern information technologies is possible only if the level of information culture and computer literacy of state civil servants are appropriate. The unified information system allows to unite several subordinate structures (territorial bodies), which ensures interaction with the central apparatus regardless of the geographical location of territorial bodies.

This article presents and analyzes topical issues of state administration and its transformation related to the development of information and communication technologies, the emergence of such concepts as “digital state”, “digital economy”, etc. The authors systematized the main ideas and formulated the vision of the participants of the Gaidar Forum - 2018 (known scientists, government officials, public and political figures, businessmen from different countries), processes of digital transformation of public administration and regulation of the economic sphere, in particular concerning new approaches to staffing such changes. Basing on the speeches of the leading experts of the Gaidar Forum - 2018 the authors outline the opportunities and problems of the public administration system, the degree of its readiness for such transformation.

In the age of rapid development of new financial technologies, the fact that the digital economy is a key factor of growth and development is universally recognized. Today, the Bank of Russia, as a socially significant institution, pays much attention to the work on defining the legal framework, developing regulatory approaches, developing human resources. Attitude to the introduction of new technologies in the financial sector, to put it mildly, is ambiguous, including in our country. In the mass media, statements of Russian politicians and statesmen appear more and more often, which sometimes express diametrically opposed positions in relation to crypto-currencies, blockchain technology and, in general, to new financial technologies.The author notes that the blockchain is the basis of the sensational cryptocurrency Bitcoin. However, blockchain technology in recent years has noticeably separated from bitcoin and has become regarded as a safe system for collecting and storing information, as it is resistant to falsification, revision, hacking and theft of information. Today, the blockchain is the basis for the development of voting systems, insurance, registration of real estate rights, storage of socially significant information, and its scope of application is expanding. The author considers different positions and concentrates his attention on the course of the Central Bank. It is noted that the regulator has formulated a Strategy for the development of financial technologies and digitalization of the financial market until 2020.

On the final day of the Gaidar forum, the IPACS - Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service has introduced its traditional discussion of the problems of financial control and audit. This year the guests were invited to speculate about the changes that will affect the scope of control in the era of the coming technological revolution. More and more is said about the digital reality that creates a new reality in the economy. It is obvious that the state cannot remain aloof from the ongoing processes. The growing digitalization of economic processes creates the basis for the formation of new markets and generates new conditions of functioning of the economic system that contributes to the establishment of digital state and qualitatively changes the requirements for institutions, techniques and technologies of state control and supervision in the economy.

The paper considers domestic and foreign approaches to the definition of virtual currency as an object of civil rights. The main attention is paid to the laws of Japan on the legal regulation of the crypto currency, the recommendations of the Swiss financial regulator and the main trends in the development of the crypto-currency market in Germany. On the basis of the data studied, the author reasonably states that the international community is not ready to develop common criteria for combating the legalization of criminal proceeds and the financing of terrorism in the sphere of regulating the turnover of crypto-currencies and proposes an analysis of doctrinal positions regarding the legal nature of crypto-currencies and tokens.Thus, the subject of the study was the main scientific and practical approaches to the definition of the object of civil rights in terms of their adaptability to cryptocurrencies. The objectives of the work are the search for a universal algorithm for resolving civil disputes related to the circulation of crypto currency in Russian and foreign judicial practice. Through the use of historical, comparative legal and dialectical methods, as well as the method of content analysis, Parallels were drawn between cryptocurrencies and individual objects of civil rights (property item, property rights, other property).

The article presents a forecast of economic development in the era of digitalization. The author sees the division of the economy in the postindustrial era into two major components: the exponential economy, the development of which will be much more effective and will enter the global level, where competition from local markets will move to global markets, and the indicator of business success will be a multiple increase in capitalization; and the digital economy, which will exist only in the virtual space, human-invented entities will be digitized. The author believes that this will be a kind of machine economy created by machines and serviced by machines, a human will not be able to fit into this kind of economy due to the physical inability to perform such a number of operations in the established time intervals. At the same time, the digital economy will be a global superstructure over the exponential economy. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the future of the financial industry associated with the transition to the digital economy. The number of analytical operations required by banks to create relevant and popular products will increase so much, they will become so complex that only those banks that implement the most appropriate data analysis algorithms will be able to compete. The most efficient algorithms will redesign the market configuration in favor of their owners. This will cause the ‘collapse' and the merger of banks, and the author does not exclude that the only remaining Bank in the market as a result of this process will be the Central Bank of the country.

The article presents an overview of the section ‘Trianon dialogue: Russian-French cooperation in education'. This is the traditional theme of the forum and the Academy as a whole. RANEPA has been developing cooperation with French universities, business schools and research centers for many years. In 2013, the Russian-French centre for education and consulting was established at the RANEPA Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service, and in 2014 the RANEPA established the Resource centre for cooperation in education between Russia and France, which works in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Russia, Rossotrudnichestvo, universities of the two countries. The IPACS became an organizer of the annual scientific-practical conference, devoted to cooperation in education and held at the Russian cultural and spiritual center in Paris. In November 2017, the conference was entitled ‘partnership between France and Russia: education, science and innovation, civil society dialogue'. There it was announced the beginning of the Trianon dialogue, the idea of which was made in may 2017 by the presidents of the two countries. The first practical events of the Dialogue took place within the framework of the Gaidar forum-2018, and the discussion ‘Trianon dialogue: Russian-French cooperation in the field of education' was one of them.

On January 17, 2018 on the Gaidar Forum, held at The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, the Russian and French sides discussed the problems of cities of the future and urbanization. Speech by the Moscow Chief Architect Sergei Kuznetsov at the section ‘Trianon Dialogue: The City of the Future' was a notable event at one of the first landmark events of the Forum - a platform for bilateral cooperation between civil societies between Russia and France. The corresponding agreement was signed during the talks of Russian President Vladimir Putin with French President Emmanuel Macron in May last year. The article deals with social, economic, transport, ethnopolitical and environmental aspects of the life of modern megacities and small towns, as well as the specific nature of mono-towns. For a country's economy, well-managed urbanization brings more pluses than minuses. The compactness of people's living and the diversity of the population can stimulate innovation and create new jobs. The ties between cities historically form the basis of global trade, and by reducing the need for transport, the economy becomes more environmentally friendly. With the help of urban studies, factors that affect the quality of life of urban residents were clearly identified, and, most importantly, how to improve it. The question is efficient transport infrastructure, medicine, education, security, cultural life, quality housing, etc.

The article was written by the author on the basis of his speech at the section ‘Trianon dialogue: Russian-French cooperation in the field of education', organized by the Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service within the framework of the Gaidar forum 2018. The author analyzes the process of internationalization of education that has engulfed European countries. As noted, one of the main reasons for the beginning of this process was the desire to achieve true mobility of students, teachers and researchers. To solve this problem, it was necessary to bring together educational practices, which became possible due to the signing of the Bologna agreement. However, with increasing mobility, content issues began to appear: choice of the language of instruction, language preparation of students and teachers, synchronization of educational programs. The issue of administering international cooperation of universities is no less acute. Great popularity and prestige began to be used by programs of double certification, which double the chances of graduates for decent employment. However, such programs are expensive for universities, which forces them to look for possible ways to maintain their financial independence. The international University community has tried to formalize the indicators and successes of universities in this area, to include them in the assessment of the quality of education, research and publication activities through various ratings, which, however, caused and causes a lot of complaints and disputes. All these questions require from universities an operational and systemic solution, a change in the appearance and content of education. The forthcoming digital revolution plays a significant role in the need for such changes.

The article is a development of the author's speech at the section ‘Trianon Dialogue: Russian-French Cooperation in the Sphere of Education' organized by the Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service within the framework of the Gaidar Forum 2018. The article presents an analysis of the state of the Russian-French cooperation in the field of higher education, provides statistics on the development of the bilateral interaction. The author cites data that testifies to the rapid development of the educational services market throughout the world. Education is becoming one of the components of the geopolitical positioning of the countries, and in addition, a significant sector of the economy. It is noted that Russia has concluded the largest number of joint educational programs with France. Extensive experience in the implementation of such programs allows the author to analyze the ‘bottlenecks' of cooperation and suggest possible ways to overcome them. In particular, it is emphasized that both Russian and French colleagues pay more attention to joint master's programs, explaining such a choice by better language training of older students and their higher motivation. The author suggests to answer the question: How will the well-prepared and motivated students of the master's degree appear, if they do not get the corresponding education in the bachelor's degree? It is noted that today cooperation with foreign colleagues is carried out, mainly, by forces and due to the enthusiasm of the universities themselves, and such activities necessarily require state participation and coordination while maintaining the independence of universities.

He review gives an idea of the main points of the recently published analytical report ‘Russia and France in the world educational space'. This work was presented to the public during the Gaidar forum, it continued the series of publications implemented by the team of the Russian-French Center for Education and Consulting, established in the Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service of The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in 2013. It is underlined that the cooperation of our countries in this sphere is extremely important in the historical perspective of a new turn of relations between Russia and France, when dialogue on all levels of society is intensified. Particular attention is paid to such problems as the globalization of higher education, which captures new countries, and its consequence - educational migration. The analytical report identifies factors that contribute to the influx of foreign students into universities. The review also provides insight into specific projects in the sphere of Russian-French educational and scientific cooperation.

This article presents the state of the art and prospects for the Russian-French research collaboration, based on semistructures interviews with Russian and French scientists. Motivations, origins, and a pace of development for scientific collaborations between the two countries were investigated. Official collaborative schemes as well as temporary partnerships (through fellowships, trainings, part-time work in Russian or French organizations) were studied. The survey covered wide range of disciplines, both in natural and social sciences. It has revealed that most of partnerships that are functioning within official intergovernmental schemes are stable and the parties are willing to continue and even expand collaboration. At the same time there are a number of barriers to successful cooperation. The most hampering factors are the lack of funding, some logistical problems, and other issues related to the specifics of organization and regulation of scientific research in Russia. An important part of sustainable development is participation of students and postdocs in research collaborations. Russian and French students establish long-term linkages that may yield new joint projects in the future. Main factors that should strengthen collaboration include necessity to provide more funding from both sides, to improve foreign language skills, and possibly move towards joint commercialization-related research and development.

The session ‘Russia-Spain. The fortieth anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between countries (19772017)' held within the framework of the Gaidar forum-2017 aroused interest not only Russian diplomats, scientists and journalists, but also their Spanish colleagues. As a result of last year's meeting, there was a further rapprochement of the positions of the two countries on many issues, new areas of cooperation developed. The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration actively maintains contacts with Spanish colleagues in the educational sphere, which is greatly facilitated by the activities of the Embassy of Spain in the Russian Federation. The decision to continue discussions on the development of cooperation between the countries aroused mutual interest. At the Gaidar forum 2018, it was decided to talk about the role of the media in shaping the image of countries in the minds of citizens of Russia and Spain, about gaps and mistakes in the work of the media, about ways to overcome them. During the discussion, it was repeatedly emphasized that the media should be aware of the responsibility to consumers of their products, that the result of the media is not only a mental image of the partner country, but also intensification or, conversely, inhibition of foreign economic relations and contacts of the business community. The development of partnership relations should be considered as a special communicative space that contributes to the fullest disclosure of the social and innovative potential of business in Russia and Spain. Information and analytical infrastructure is associated with the creation of the united information field for business.

The Gaidar forum hosted the discussion entitled ‘Russia-Spain: new opportunities', which was a continuation of the first joint meeting of the Gaidar forum-2017 devoted to the forty-year restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This year the discussion has been devoted mainly to mutual perception of each other by Russian and Spanish citizens, as well as to the peculiarities and pain points of the partners' representation in the media of the two countries. The information sphere in modern society is becoming a powerful means of influencing the socio-economic processes, the formation and development of international business communications. Increasing the amount of information, isolation from which is almost impossible, does not lead to knowledge and accumulation of knowledge, but to superficiality, since the perception of social reality is fragmented [Baudrillard, 2003] and consists of images [Marcuze, 1994]. This opens up additional possibilities for manipulating public consciousness [Horkheimer, Adorno, 1997]. Changes in the nature of international relations, the complexity of the processes of forming a positive image of a country externally is largely associated with the intensive development of information technologies [Anokhin, 2014]. New ways and means of communication and information transfer, on the one hand, lead to the expansion of the information field, ensuring the availability of information, but at the same time, on the other hand, they also cause an increase in the amount of defective information, and limit the possibilities for its critical evaluation. [Luman, 2001. P. 52-54].

The article is devoted to the topical issues of modernity related to the mass media and the challenges that facing journalists. The author considers the concept of ‘image' and ‘reputation' of the country, as well as the importance of creating a positive vision of a state by the world community. The complexities of mutual understanding processes have a negative impact on building a constructive dialogue at the interstate level, which in turn leads to tension and aggravation in international relations. The author substantiates the position that the formation of a positive image of the state in a special way affects the internal and external factors of development of this state. The problem is considered on the example of Russia and Spain, special attention is paid to the reflection in the media relations between the two countries and the image of each of them in the information policy of the partner. The data of researches of the subject of publications about our country and their positioning in the printed editions of Spain, and also the important role played by the headings which are actively influencing collective consciousness of society are given. The article emphasizes the difference between the image of Russia as a country and the image of its people, as well as the influence of stereotypes that continue to influence the creation of the image of states. The author notes the need to actively develop and deepen Russian-Spanish relations in the field of culture and education, which will positively affect the development of Russian-Spanish relations in general.

The article examines the reforms carried out in the Republic of Uzbekistan in priority areas of its development, including improving state and public construction, ensuring the rule of law, developing the economy and the social sphere, ensuring security, interethnic harmony and religious tolerance, and implementing a constructive foreign policy. Particular attention is paid to strengthening the trust of the business community and civil society in the ongoing reforms. The mechanisms for involving citizens in discussing the mechanisms for reform implementation on the basis of creating modern Public Service Centers and ensuring the efficient functioning of Virtual reception rooms of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan are disclosed. The peculiarity of the transition to an innovatively oriented model of the development of the economy of Uzbekistan is that the growing global competition creates challenges that will be solved in the coming years. The most important characteristic of the world innovative development is competition for high-quality human capital, and the growing mobility of highly qualified personnel ensures the dissemination of knowledge. Particular emphasis in the country is placed on the role of information technology in the dissemination of knowledge and information. Their participation in the further growth of innovative activity of the population, dissemination of knowledge among young people, participants in the production cycles of various regions is becoming more and more relevant.

The article examines the strategies for the behavior of public servants in conflict situations as ways to overcome difficulties in their activities. Presence and overcoming of conflicts are important factors that directly influence the efficiency of official activity. In the paper, the most preferred behavior strategies for public servants in conflict situations were analyzed. The obtained data indicate that public servants prefer to avoid discussing conflict issues or postpone them, neglecting not only their own, but also other people's interests. The author describes ways of overcoming psychological difficulties arising in the professional activities of public servants. The main way to reduce conflict is the introduction of personnel development programs, which requires the presence not only of relevant substantive but also methodological justification. Since the strategy of avoidance prevails among public servants, it is first and foremost necessary to form a practical attitude to the conflict, which will allow us to concentrate not on the individual, but on the practical aspect. Overcoming psychological difficulties in the activities of public servants will improve the effectiveness of the sphere not only on the content side, but also in terms of the psychological well-being of the individual.

Elements of ‘soft power' are particularly active and effective during the period of the use of hard power associated with military and / or economic coercion to correct the behavior of a country. Foreign states are using hard power, but the Russian academic society is building up ‘soft power'. Universities can always act as a mediatory platform for resolving difficult situations, even including foreign policy. The provisions of the Bologna Declaration were established as measures of the voluntary process of harmonization, and not as the strict legal obligations. Until today all the recommendations of the Bologna process were formalized by the relevant communiqué. One of the main principles of the Bologna Convention is the principle of unification of credits, which is reflected in the Federal law of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2012 № 273-FZ ‘Education in the Russian Federation'. Russia views the internationalization of education as a significant element in improving its quality and integrating science. This issue may become a key one in modern conditions. The highest level of development of international cooperation of universities is the implementation of dual-diploma programs. Such programs belong to the exclusive model of lawyers training, as they include a list of proposals for students, the implementation of which requires the University significant organizational, personnel and methodological costs.