Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2021. 2.

This paper continues the series of articles published in the journal devoted to the analysis of the challenges of the current global crises in terms of their impact on world politics and international relations. The authors highlight several features of the pandemic crisis of 2020–2021, in particular the “global empathy,” violation of the spatial logic of globalization and the spread of “infodemics”. The paper presents an extensive overview of current research on the Corona Crisis through the prism of social science. The common understanding of all the risks and dangers generated by interdependence, the vulnerability of the transitional world order, democratic institutions, and the inevitability of the common fate of humankind are all elements dictating the need for transnational cooperation, reforms in global governance, regional integration, and greater legitimation of supranational factors. The authors emphasize the importance of the “global health” category in international relations and its growing influence on the world order. It is emphasized that global risks derived from the ongoing crisis are inherently political. Indeed, the coronavirus pandemic provides a compelling basis for bringing anti-crisis policy to the forefront of research in the whole range of “crisisology disciplines” like political science, world economy, global studies and environmental political studies, social psychology, international relations, political forecasting, and theories of sustainable development. Finally, the article focuses on the emerging opportunities for Russia, the implementation of which is associated with maintaining biotechnological leadership in the development of vaccines and its transformation into the increasing international authority, trust, and soft power.

The effective supply of regional public goods is the fundamental driving force for the sustainable development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). After the expansion of the SCO, member states have increasingly diversified demands for regional common goods. The article analyses the supply of the regional public goods in three different fields: security, economy and cultural cooperation. Although currently the SCO regional public goods supply appears at its peak, several problems and constraints remain, such as the disequilibrium between supply and demand, shortage of funds, lack of effective organizational and procedural mechanisms, and a degree of regional overlap. These issues seriously constrained the SCO regional activities such as the effective supply of public goods that requires integration of the development of new and old members. As one of the important SCO member states, China should actively promote the optimization of regional public goods supply through several steps. First, based on the “Shanghai spirit” China should promote the SCO’s community building, political mutual trust, enhance the political cooperation between member states and consolidate the regional environment facilitating the public goods supply. Second, the design of the SCO system should be improved through the innovation of the mechanisms of regional public goods supply able to increase its efficiency. Third, Russia and China should coordinate their activities more closely in order to create a harmonious environment in which both countries play the leading role in regional public goods supply. Fourth, the SCO should strengthen the cooperation with “One Belt and One Road” initiative to promote a rapid regional economic development. Finally, mechanisms of cooperation with other regional organizations such as the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) should be also strengthened in order to create an integrated and complementary supply system.

The concept of ‘Russian malign activities’ is often used both in public speeches by many Western officials and in discussions within government bodies, but it remains not clearly defined. The first section of this article provides a definition and a general meaning of the concept while the second presents the overview of two approaches used to describe this phenomenon in its application to the Russian case. Indeed, according to the first approach, “Russian malign activities” are integrated into a developed plan of measures for the dissemination of certain information or disinformation with the final objective to increase the international clout of the Russian Federation. The second approach looks at these “malign activities” as a part of the hybrid war waged by Russia, primarily against NATO countries. Finally, the third section of the article analyses the origin and possible explanations for the widespread diffusion of the speculations about “Russian malign activities.” The article argues that the idea of “Russian malign activities” is broadcasted primarily through the United States and Great Britain with the aim of portraying Russia as an enemy and consequently to delegitimize all of its activities, especially within the informational field. This thesis became widespread only in the British-American world, which already contained fertile ground for such a perception of Russian politics. The use of this thesis affects both international relations and global security.

The article presents a comparative analysis of the features of foreign transport policy taking into account the examples of the development of the Suez and Panama Canals, the results of which can be used for further research and practical application in the formation of Russia's transport policy for the development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The author applies comparative research methods, which first identifies the general and individual elements of the transport policy for the development of international waterways of foreign countries and then analyzes the features of the development, implementation, execution, and effectiveness of these elements in the corresponding transport route. The purpose of the work is to emphasize the importance of the international experience of developing the policy of international shipping routes as an analytical starting point in the formation of the transport policy of Russia (NSR). The methodology of the study of transport policy for the development of international shipping routes is based on a systematic and structural-functional analysis that helps to establish and apply the positive experience of international transport policies to the Russian case. The empirical analysis is based on the comparison of policies for the development of navigation on the Suez and Panama Canals from their inception. The specific methodological and empirical approach allows the author to formulate the hypothesis and explore the opportunity of the application of these cases to Russia. The article concludes that the highlighted characteristics of the transport policy of the Suez and Panama Canals should be used in the implementation of the Russian NSR policy, taking into account the designated tasks of the strategic development of the Arctic.

The article adopts the civilizational approach in its diachronic aspect, which considers the development of human civilization as a consistent change of various types of global world order. The authors analyze the crisis of the modern technogenic-consumer civilization associated with its key explicit and implicit values. The essential features and lines of formation of a new type of civilization, which has already been called spiritual and ecological, are outlined. The article analyzes the emerging civilizational shifts in the sphere of culture, politics and economy. The key argument of the article is that the formation of new civilizational relations has a point-like spatial character of origin and an embryonic period of maturation. According to the authors, one of the key ‘locus’ in the transition from the technogenic-consumer civilization to the spiritual and ecological civilization can be identified in the Siberian region due to its objectively inherent spatial, climatic, historical and cultural features. The peacemaking and cultural-synthetic potential of Siberia, which lies at the intersection of transport, energy and civilizational corridors of Greater Eurasia, is of particular importance in the current situation of crisis. The article concludes by providing specific recommendations for the implementation of the Siberian spiritual and ecological civilizational project.

The article discusses the ‘technologies’ of the colour revolution used in Northern Macedonia starting from the analysis of the activity of the pro-Western opposition (since 2011) aimed at political destabilization and preparation for protest actions. In 2015, indeed, the pro-Western opposition was able to mobilize a significant number of protesters in Skopje and organize a so-called “Maidan.” Due to this large manifestation and protests, N. Gruevski announced his resignation as Prime Minister, a transitional government was established, and the results of early parliamentary elections were invalidated. In 2017, a pro-Western politician, leader of the SDSM party, Z. Zaev, became Prime Minister and in 2020 new parliamentary elections were held. The victory of the parliamentary coalition “We can” (led by the SDSM party), which gained more seats than the VMRO-DPMNE party in the Parliament, allowed Z. Zaev to form a government. The results of the study show that since 2011 the pro-Western opposition has destabilized the political situation in the country organizing a protest movement. The pro-Western opposition also carried out a series of ‘information attacks’, spreading unconfirmed information compromising N. Gruevski and Sasho Mijalkov (a cousin of N. Gruevski, who led the secret police). These elements allowed the opposition to mobilize the population in Skopje and organize a colour revolution, which overthrew the Prime Minister and led to a change in the general balance of political forces in the country.