“Improvements” in the mechanisms of democracy for making decisions about providing taxpayer-financed public goods can lead the economy in the same direction as authoritarianism. Such a by-product may be insignificant, but, even if so, a tradition of abridging democracy, similarly to an...

In the frame of the present research we considered a hypothesis on the existence of a trend to a widespreading of standards and practices which expand the horizon of the regional authorities' discretion and possibilities for their discretionary regulation, due to the federal authorities'...

In September 2014, the RF Government approved a draft budget for 2015. In so doing it rejected the idea of increasing taxes and found an intermediate solution for the preservation of the funded component of labor pension without, however, making a fi nal decision as to its future. On the other...

In July 2014, against the backdrop of an escalating confl ict in Ukraine and the crash of a civilian passenger airliner in the active combat zone there, the OECD’s sanctions against Russia were severely toughened. A ban was imposed on the issuance of long-term loans (for periods over 90 days)...

In August 2014, Russia’s authorities announced that the funded component of labor pensions would remain frozen in 2015 – something that they had previously adamantly denied. This decision is fraught with numerous negative long-term consequences, including the erosion of the impetus to be...

A new truce was arranged in Ukraine in February 2015, following a meeting involving the leaders of Russia, France and the German Chancellor. However, the very context of Minsk II Agreements repeats the numerous understatements of Minsk I Agreements and can be broken any time unless solid...

В сентябре 2014 г. правительство утвердило проект очередного бюджета, отказавшись от повышения налогов и найдя промежуточное решение по сохранению накопительной...

Главной публичной новостью стала заочная полемика между В. Путиным и Д. Медведевым вокруг инициатив следственного комитета РФ вернуть, как минимум, себе право...

В июле 2013 г. оппозиционный политик А.Навальный был приговорен к пяти годам лишения свободы, тем не менее, судя по всему, до выборов мэра Москвы 8 сентября 2013 г. он...