Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2026. 2.

The purpose of this article is to identify the specifics of conceptualizing the concept of “political design” in Russian political science. It is established that political design attracts the attention of scholars recognizing the importance of understanding the possibilities and limitations of transformative activity in politics. However, the identification of political design is characterized by inconsistency, manifested both in the ambiguity of definitions of basic concepts (design, project) and in the semantic interpretation of their political content. Both general reasons for the difficulties of conceptualizing political design, associated primarily with the methodological pluralism of political science, and specific ones associated with the characteristics of political design as a complex phenomenon are identified. A clear bias in the interpretation of political design is noted towards its definition as a value-oriented activity aimed at constructing an image of the desired future. The methodology of design, describing the subject area and methods of project work, remains in the shadows. Issues requiring in-depth scholarly discussion are identified, and it is concluded that delays in their discussion contribute to the formation of a skeptical attitude toward political design.

The study aims to assess the potential for applying cognitive technologies to construct a coherent conceptual framework for describing the value-based foundations of Russian statehood. Issues regarding the definition of a terminological basis for describing traditional values — as a cornerstone for strengthening Russian statehood — were examined by integrating approaches from epistemology, axiology, and linguistics. In addressing the research objectives, the study demonstrates the rationale and effectiveness of employing specialized tools for ontological modeling and semantic analysis alongside general methods of generalization and systematization. The study highlights the growing role of the ideological factor — specifically the competition between national development models — amid the emergence of a multipolar world order. It identifies challenges associated with reflecting and verifying the value-based foundations of civilizational identity when formulating domestic and foreign policy measures. An empirical assessment of perceptions regarding value hierarchies is presented, based on a survey of university students. The study outlines the results of developing an ontology system to describe the values underpinning the strengthening of statehood, derived from the analysis of relevant texts. Finally, recommendations are offered on utilizing the proposed toolkit to identify and interpret these value foundations within public administration and political activity.

The article discusses the results of a political and psychological study on how Russia’s development is perceived by the public. It examines the structural components, functions, and characteristics of the country’s future image. The authors draw conclusions about the most significant parameters for assessing these images of the future. Based on these conclusions, the most typical scenarios for Russia’s development as perceived by Russians are described. The most pronounced trends in political perception include a significant ambiguity in these images, driven by increasing uncertainty, as well as the instability and unpredictability of social processes. The study also highlights the need to develop critical thinking and imagination skills in society, the increasingly limited nature of planning horizons, and the refusal to scale goals. These risks are heightened by the instability of society’s psychological state and its sensitivity to the changing events. The study revealed a differentiation in the country’s images, based on the criterion of assessing reality based on emotional significance and activity. The data reflect the increasing relevance of basic materialistic values, as well as the complexity of society’s construction of long-term development scenarios. In this case, the communicative factor rather exacerbates the problems of perceiving the future. Generational, value, and temporal factors also appear to be significant ones in perceiving the future today.

The paper examines fundamental changes in modern socio-political organization as a process of transition of social systems to a new technological order. The essence, social significance and directions of the technological policy of the state ensuring sovereignty, security and the civilizational vector of development in the context of ongoing technological transformations are discussed. The authors show the connection between the technological policy of the state and the design of the image of the technological future of society. The principles and theoretical and methodological tools of designing the image of the technological future are analyzed in a substantive way. The article substantiates that technological policy is a complex and strategically oriented state-legal activity implemented jointly with various civil institutions. In modern conditions of transition to a new technological order, this policy, being focused on building a sovereign infrastructure that is adequate to technological changes, acquires a cross-cutting character, and the design of the image of the technological future becomes one of the most important directions of the technological policy of the state.

The article is devoted to a political science study of the phenomenon of medievalism — the use of images and symbols of the Middle Ages in current politics and public discourse. The authors consider medievalism as a reaction to the crisis of universalist educational narratives and analyze its role in the post-Soviet space, especially in Russia. The work argues that the political actualization of medieval images in the countries of the post-Soviet region is closely related to the processes of nation building and the wars of memory aimed at revising the general imperial and Soviet historiography. The authors identify two competing models of medievalism in present Russian public space: conservative, idealizing the domestic Middle Ages within the framework of traditional values, and liberal, using ironic images of the European Middle Ages to criticize the current political agenda and distance from the official sacralization of history. As a result, it is concluded that, despite its active use in public policy, medievalism has a limited impact on present commemorative practices.

The article presents a comprehensive deconstruction of Russophobia as a multidimensional interdisciplinary phenomenon, the paper examines in detail three main dimensions of which: historical-political, political-legal, and media-communicative. The author analyzes the evolution of Russophobia from spontaneous xenophobic attitudes to a complex transnational ideological construct and a tool for legitimizing the geopolitical expansion of the West. In the legal aspect, the official institutionalization of the definition of Russophobia in the Strategy for Countering Extremism in the Russian Federation and academic discussions regarding its criminalization are studied. In the media sphere, Russophobia is analyzed as an algorithmically managed digital matrix in the network space, which threatens the cognitive sovereignty of the state and requires ensuring communicative and linguistic security. The interdisciplinary analysis allows proposing an effective analytical toolkit for monitoring and neutralizing destructive content in modern digital communicative practices. The author concludes that countering Russophobia is impossible solely through reactive measures and requires combining theoretical conceptualization with applied analysis of the specifics of network discourse practices.

The “Russian threat” factor is constitutive for the logic and guiding principles of Poland’s security policy implementation, as evidenced by a systematic analysis of the corpus of strategic‑planning documents in the domain of foreign and security policy. The article’s primary objective is to trace the evolution of strategic assessments of Russia in the key documents of Polish security policy adopted in 2014 and 2020. The author employs elements of institutional and comparative analysis in combination with qualitative political analysis and expert assessment, while the analytical framework conceptualises international‑political dynamics as a shifting outcome of political design, shaped by the national strategies of states and institutional actors. The study boasts not only significant academic value, contributing to the empirical investigation of security‑theory case studies, but also substantial applied relevance for the Russian foreign‑policy forecasting and planning system.