Vol. 26 No. 4 (2024)

Acquiring sovereignty is the top priority for socio-economic development in the new geopolitical reality characterized by the shift from a unipolar to a polycentric world. This is necessary to accomplish the Russian Federation's national goals. Furthermore, if the Russian Federation's military-political sovereignty is undeniable,then some issues,primarilyin education,must be resolved to consistentlyguarantee various forms of sovereignty, including technological, financial, trade, economic, informational, cultural, and personnel sovereignty. Among them, the formation of a new managerial elite possessing clusters of professional competencies with the following characteristics deserves special attention: ethics and values - «from the contemporary cult of consumption to achieving sustainable development goals and guaranteeing security»; interdisciplinary knowledge and strategic thinking - from an emphasis on maximizing short-term benefits to long-term priorities; communication - from excessive administration and authoritarian management to comprehending the growing demands of a contemporarymanager,the growth of digital competencies,and a corporate culture; effective management skills - minimizing professional risks, reducing the fear of making decisions, taking responsibilityfor inaction,and fostering trust between the government,private sector,and civil society; efficient resource management ,including resource conservation and waste reduction.

The article aims to analyze and find answers to the question of whether Afghanistan’s political crisis can be resolved. The author looks at the dominant political ideology in the West and tries to relate it to the Taliban’s current political dominance. Although it is challenging to define this power as democratic, it has historical roots. After examining the advantages and disadvantages of the Western and Eastern approaches, the author concludes that Afghanistan lacks democratic institutions based on the indicators of power legitimacy. Sharia serves as the foundation for the Taliban government’s legitimacy, but it adheres to al-shura or jirga principles in its traditional interpretation of Islam. At the same time, parliamentary republics and democracies can be perfectly acceptable forms of government in an Islamic state, and citizens may consider the government legitimate.

The article explores the issue of existing particularism in judicial practice.The authors examine the importance of judicial acts and question whether it is appropriate to acknowledge them as sources of law because they are legal facts. The concept of a “legal position” has been defined by modern judicial practice to such an extent that,in the lackof inherent characteristics that would give this categorya unified meaning,its meaning is lost rather than expanded or specified.There is a sense of isolated lawmaking and conditions for a “precedent revolution” due to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation’s isolated legal positions that lead to conflicts with existing legislation.There is a belief that when courts must find the necessarylegislative solution,theyare deprived of normative and scientific support. Research reveals that the current family legislation does not include legal requirements in the Code itself for acknowledging a court decision as a legal fact in the areas of guardianship, alimony rights, and adoption regulation.The current situation requires legislators’ attention, and the judicial lawmaking examples discussed in the study should be removed from the legitimate legal environment.

The article examines the problems of establishing protection zones for natural monuments, reorganizing and eliminating them,and guaranteeing a special protection regime.The author examines the law enforcement practices of executive authorities, judicial procedures, federal legislation, and legislation of the Russian Federation’s constituent entities.The article provides evidence for creating a closed list of reasons to eliminate natural monuments.The study demonstrates the need to consolidate procedural standards at the federal level that govern the sequence in which natural monument protection zones are established and the state environmental oversight of natural monuments,including the periodicityof such monitoring.Resolving the recognized flaws in the law will adhere to the principle of prioritizing the preservation of natural ecological systems, landscapes, and complexes. It will also enable the establishment of the legal requirements required to safeguard natural monuments from being damaged.

The article defines legal data and its predetermination as data whose transmission and processing have legal implications.The author discusses the correlation between natural and formal legal language. Formalization is a crucial process for converting primary legal information into legal data. Document language is not the best format for storing legal data because it lacks formal rigor and allows for interpretation. In addition to classifying legal data, the article provides an example of analyzing several different kinds of legal data.Using complex contracts as an example,the author discusses the thoughts on the future of machine-readable legislation.To fully realize the concept of machine-readable law, it will be possible to present a contract not as a text interpreted by lawyers but as a system of interconnected legal data with a specific structure.At the beginning, this will be demonstrated through the example of private agreements based on a civil law contract between professional market participants. Formalization will continue to be a crucial component of automated law enforcement as long as civil law uses natural language text as the primarysource of the subjects of the law’s will.Civics will have to overcome its reliance on text in favor of alternative forms of treaty representation.

Identifying the weaknesses of the object of management is a useful analytical instrument for solving publicadministration problems.The foundation of such an instrument ought to be a set of indicators that represent the ideal condition of the management system.This article outlines the primaryprerequisites for the indicators that make up this type of analytical instrument and offers three categories of indices for assessing the region’s sustainability: indicators of social and economic development and the indicators of ecological state.The grouping of the indicators is predicated on the notion that the region is sustainable when its social, economic, and environmental aspects coexist harmoniously. According to the suggested parameters,it is proposed to evaluate and consider the degree of development of the management system independently, in addition to characterizing the indicators for each of them. The use of these indicators involves both expert assessments of the selected parameters and the application of statistical data. The suggested assessment system can enhance publicadministration’s analytical capabilities,facilitate strategic decision-making for the territory’s sustainable development, and provide a thorough understanding of the sustainability status of the region.

Given that the regional economy is evolving in the face of growing economic sanctions and the pandemic’s effects, the creation and application of efficient instruments for fostering investment climate should serve as the foundation for establishing and developing favorable investment climate. The article supports the relevance of ratings as promising instruments of regional economic policy and the efficient evaluation of the initiatives taken by authorities at all levels to enhance the investment climate in Russian regions.Authorities at all levels must workmethodicallyand intentionallyto create favorable conditions for attracting investments if they intend to improve the regional business climate. Investors seek consistency in the terms and conditions, the head of the municipality’s personal involvement, regional management, infrastructure availability, and management teams’ willingness to assist in resolving issues efficiently. Establishing favorable conditions for conducting business requires thorough work. All of this enables the region’s ranking in the investment attractiveness rating to be strengthened and consolidated,which in turn helps to improve the investment climate in the region.

The article examines the project activity system at the regional level within the framework of publicadministration.The authors highlight the methodological,organizational,and terminological aspects of implementing projects at various levels and stress the value of the project approach as an instrument for boosting public administration efficiency and raising the quality of public services. It is noted that despite the introduction of a number of procedures aimed at improving the effectiveness of the project approach, such as,for example,the “project guillotine”,general imperfections remain,and the approach itself requires further development.The article examines the State Unitary Enterprise «Fuel and Energy Complex of Saint Petersburg» as an example of a successful heat supplysystem modernization project and explores how this project has benefited the region's social and economic development. Additionally, the study provides the summary of the legal and regulatory framework that the Russian Federation's public authorities use to oversee project activities. The article points out that the regulatory and legal framework of the Russian Federation provides for four types of projects,while no unified terminological system has developed at the regional level. The authors emphasize the need to eliminate the terminological inconsistency of the regional and federal regulatory and legal framework, which will contribute to improving the efficiency of project activities.

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 focuses on analyzing and generalizing the current negative (failed or defective) use and implementation of digital instruments in public administration, which is hazardous to the public’s interests and publicauthority’s reputation. According to the author,the current shortcomings of publicadministration’s digitalization do not negate the need for it,and having a solid grasp of the technology’s drawbacks,potential negative effects, applicability limitations, and related risks enables it to be used much more efficiently. The article outlines the author’s categorization of the factors contributing to the unfavorable experience of implementing and using digital technologies and possible solutions in public administration. The article presents the theoretical foundations for comprehending and interpreting the theory of intellectualized public administration as a method that considerably lowers the risks of errors, imbalances, and failures in the process of digitalization of public administration.

The paper discusses the peculiarities of adopting Part 5 of Article 14 of the Law on Digital Financial Assets,which prohibits digital currency transactions.The author defines payment as a form of counter-provision and examines the idea of counter-provision concerning the theory of synallagmatic relations.The article clarifies the definition of terms «payment» and «means of payment» and highlights how they impact the boundaries of the ban on transactions involving virtual currencies. The article discusses the nature of digital currencies and their place in the system of civil law objects,emphasizing that the legal phenomenon of cryptocurrency has not yet been sufficiently researched, and the judicial practice is formed along the lines of recognizing digital currencies as an absolute property right sui generis. The study identifies the variety of people and digital currency types that can be dealt with in digital currency transactions.The author considers the most intriguing aspect of digital currencies to be their ability to completely change the established concept of money and its circulation.

One of the new developments in the healthcare sector is the digitization of healthcare management. Despite the enormous potential of telemedicine, artificial intelligence-based systems, etc., there are still many organizational and technical challenges in introducing digital solutions in medicine. The study examines the advantages and disadvantages of implementing contemporary technologies and provides examples of their use in various medical specialties. In addition, the authors investigate digital transformation processes at the city and national levels. The training of medical personnel in the use of technological solutions,as well as the issues associated with organizing and managing such initiatives,are addressed separately.

The article examines the effectiveness of using electronic platforms to promote communication between citizens and the government in light of digital transformation of Russian society.The main goals are to evaluate perceptions of artificial intelligence,data security,digital literacy,and user satisfaction. The majority of users believe e-platforms to be very effective,according to the survey results,but they also recognize the need for improved data securityand process automation.Digital literacyvaries significantlybydemographic: younger users and those with higher education are more digitally competent and satisfied with the Internet, whereas users with secondary vocational education and older people are more likely to experience issues with Internet platforms.The widespread concern about data securityemphasizes the need for robust data protection measures. Implementation of Artificial Intelligence is viewed cautiously, with users voicing skepticism and worries about potential mistakes and data security risks. To improve efficiency and citizen satisfaction, the author suggests enhancing digital literacy,strengthening data security protocols,and optimizing user experience.

The article describes the features of the Cyberprofessor online platform for managing and monitoring the preparation of graduation and scientific research projects. The practice shows that the current system for students to prepare term papers and graduate qualification assignments frequently fails to consider the complexity of the work done, and rather than fostering professional competencies and research experience,it creates discomfort with a mechanistic approach to developing projects.At the same time, it is essential to continuously monitor the process of preparing the paper and use administrative instruments to check its quality. Otherwise, students’ objectives for writing scientific papers of varying difficulty will be compromised, and their satisfaction with the learning process will decline.The proposed project’s primary objective is to develop a unified system with an easily navigable web interface that will enable systematic communication between all participants of this process (students, supervisors, and educational program administrators) at every stage of writing the scientific research paper.A prototype of such a system is currentlybeing developed and tested bythe personnel of the Laboratoryof Intelligent Data Analysis in Public Administration of the Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.