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Attempts to discover an internal logic in the high‐speed events taking place in the former Soviet Union. In addressing the problems of the country′s disintegration, examines the issue in its socioeconomic, political and territorial‐administrative aspects. Analyses, for this purpose, the nature of Soviet society prior to Gorbachev′s reforms, its present transitional stage and its probable direction in the near future.

The purpose of this paper is to examine macroeconomic factors that are significantly related to consumption of various alcoholic beverages in Russia.

The authors consider 78 Russian regions for the period from 2008 to 2012. Data were collected from the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia. The authors investigate differences in the volume and structure of consuming absolute alcohol in aggregate, vodka, beer, and wine. Estimating fixed effect panel models enables us to reveal the relationship between alcohol consumption and the set of macroeconomic factors that include economic development of regions and living standards, the effect of unemployment, and the degree of urbanization.

Alcohol consumption is procyclical in Russia. Two main alcoholic beverages in Russia are vodka and beer. Economic development and urbanization of regions are positively related to consuming alcohol. Unemployment rate affects consumption of different types of alcoholic drinks in a different way. For absolute alcohol, vodka and beer, this relationship is negative. However, it is positive for wine. The effect of unemployment on absolute alcohol and vodka increases over time. For beer, it is remained unchanged. For wine, this effect weakens over time.

To the authors knowledge, the paper is the first one to analyze macro-level factors of consumption of different alcoholic beverages in Russia. Conclusions made on aggregate macroeconomic data add to understanding of drinking patterns in Russia as a country with the large territory and great regional variations. Findings can be used for correcting the alcohol policy at the national and regional level.

This paper examines the results of the first year of the new Russian state procurement law, 94-FZ, through the lens of the 88 regional government web portals created to implement it. Benchmarks are developed and applied to them, comparing results with two contemporaneous Russian studies. Almost all regions have provided core information provision functions, but other missing features and the lack of automation mean that more than half may have done little more than fulfill formal requirements. More website features do seem to correspond to more transparency, but the law and the web portals have done little so far to combat endemic, institutional corruption of the state procurement process.

This paper aims at assessing the impacts of the national cluster policy, cluster age, cluster development benchmarks of neighbouring regions and the cumulative level of regional innovative capacity on the quantity and quality of cluster initiatives in Russia.

Hypotheses’ testing was carried out by a series of calculations comparing the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of cluster initiatives; the number of new cluster initiatives to the number of neighbouring regions, where cluster initiatives had begun to develop earlier; and ranks of regions within the Russian regional innovation scoreboard to the quantity and quality characteristics of cluster initiatives therein.

The results of the study empirically confirm that the national cluster policy significantly influenced the emergence and advancement of cluster initiatives in Russia. The proximity to the regions, having previously launched cluster support programmes, also had an impact on the emergence of new cluster initiatives. The cluster initiatives’ age had an ambiguous effect on their performance. Finally, the level of regional innovative capacity was correlated only with the number of cluster initiatives localised therein.

The findings show that along with the direct effects of the national cluster policy for the government-supported clusters, there are positive externalities, e.g. the emergence of new cluster initiatives throughout the country.

The research database of 277 cluster initiatives has been drawn up as a part of the first national cluster mapping and covers almost a decade of clustering activity in Russia. The study analyses not only the cluster initiatives supported by the federal government but also those developed independently.

This paper contributes to the literature by proposing an analysis of digital inequalities in Russia that focuses on two aspects hitherto under explored: the interregionality (by comparing and contrasting eight federal districts) and the multidimensionality of digital inequalities (by taking into account the three levels of digital divide). Therefore, the aim is to address the phenomenon of digital divide in Russia by discussing the three levels of the digital divide (access / skills / benefits) in a comparative and interregional perspective.

This paper uses secondary data for its analysis, including both national (e.g. the total number of daily Internet users in Russia) and more regionalized data (related to particular federal districts of Russia). The choice of data sources was determined by an attempt to provide a detailed and multifaceted coverage of all three levels of the digital divide in Russia, which is not limited to the access problem only. For this purpose, we are using and re-elaborating various reports about the development of the Internet and ICTs in Russia prepared by national and international organizations to cover the first level of the digital divide. To shed light upon the second and third levels of the digital divide, we discuss digital literacy report (2018), the report on Internet openness index of Russian regions (2017) and the report on the digital life index of the Russian regions (2016). Finally, in the attempt to map out the key directions of the state policy aimed at decreasing digital inequality in Russia, on both federal and regional levels, we analyze the most important regional and national policy measures to foster digitalization such as the digital Russia program, the digital government program and the program of eliminating digital inequality in Russia.

We consider this study to be both a first exploration and a baseline of the three level digital divides in Russia. The paper shows how the level of socioeconomic development of the federal districts, as well as a number of objective factors (distance/isolation, urbanization level, availability of infrastructure and costs for building new infrastructure, etc.) have impact upon digitalization of the regions. As a result, several federal districts of Russia (Central, Northwestern, and, in a number of cases, Ural and Volga federal districts) more often than others take leading positions in rankings, in terms of degree of Internet penetration, audience numbers, use of e-services, etc. This correlation, however, is not universal as we will show, and some regions lacking behind in terms of access can be booming in terms of digital literacy or other factors, like it happened with the Far Eastern Federal district for example. All in all, our research showed that digital inequality in Russia is still on place and will require more time for complete elimination, even though current state and public initiatives are being actively developed.

This paper will bring to light meaningful insights into the three levels of digital divides in Russia. Based on a multilevel (three levels of digital divide) and multi-sectional approach (the interplay of different types of inequalities), this paper contributed to overall better understanding of the digital inequalities phenomenon in Russia. It also allowed for a comparative interregional perspective, which has been missing in most papers on digital inequalities in Russia so far.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of institutional distance, extended to capture subnational institutional variation, on foreign entry mode choice.

As an empirical study, it focuses on manufacturing firms established in Russia by foreign investors from developed countries. The dependent variables, the share of foreign ownership and the entry mode choice binary variable (equal to 1 for full foreign ownership and zero for a joint venture) were obtained from the registry of foreign-owned firms in Russia. The World Bank's regulatory quality (RQ) index on a national level and a respective indicator for the various Russian regions on a subnational level were utilised to measure institutions. Multilevel cross-classified analysis including foreign firms, the various Russian regions and characteristics of the foreign owners’ home countries was applied to for making empirical estimations.

The empirical results show, first, that the regionally adjusted institutional distance, i.e. the distance between the home country and the Russian region in question, when measured in terms of RQ, shifts the ownership structure towards shared ownership. However, nation-level institutional distance between the home country and Russia does not show any statistically significant relationship with the modal choice.

The results indicate that with the exception of industries of strategic importance to the state, the most important “rules of the game” for foreign entry strategies are provided not by the federal government but by the regional governors. The theoretical value of the paper lies in the extension of the institutional distance concept to the subnational level. At the same time, the paper identifies those institutional features that foreign entrants eyeing Russia need to take into account when selecting an entry mode and location within Russia.

The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically the linkages among level of economic, managerial, financial, criminal risks and patent activity in Russia. This paper examines the relationship between the economic, managerial, financial and criminal regional risks ratings, on the one hand, and patent activity, as measured by regional patent applications for inventions, on the other.

A random effect model was performed for a data sample of 83 regions, covering the period 2006-2010 in Russia.

The empirical results show that increased levels of regional economic risks are significantly associated with decrease in patent activity in Russia.

This study fills a gap within the literature and offers a unique analysis of regional risks and their impact on patent activity. The empirical results showed that economic risk ratings have had considerable negative impact on the patent activities on regional level in Russia.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the potential of rural and ethnographic tourism for the sustainable socio-economic development of Russian regions.

A system approach was used as a method to study this problem, which allowed the authors to identify the main trends in the development of rural and ethnographic tourism in Russian regions.

The research results were obtained using predictive analysis and by determining the prospects for the further development of recreational services and the forms of their territorial organization. The paper claims that it is viable to use the sites famous for traditional folk crafts in combination with rural tourism when creating tourist clusters as this is beneficial for promising large-scale tourism investment projects.

The relevance of the problem stems from the fact that the comprehensive interaction of rural and ethnographic tourism can become an additional “growth area” of domestic travel in Russian regions. This may be possible because of a certain combination of conditions and factors on the territory of the region, the availability of natural, recreational and ethno-cultural resources.

The purpose of the article is to develop a new institutional approach to build the social market economy, which would allow balancing traditions and innovations, stability and technological progress in view of the specifics and priorities of the national economy, based on which regional models of social management will be built. The research study is performed to develop new institutional approach by the example of modern Russia by determining the institutional matrix of social management in economies of the regions that achieved the highest progress in formation of the social market economy.

The authors use the proprietary methodology of evaluating the level of sociality of state management in region's economy, which includes the estimate formula and the scale for qualitative treatment of the results. The research subjects are top ten regions of Russia listed in the quality of life index in the year 2019.

The authors determine the regression dependence of the sociality index of state management in region's economy on the selected factors and compile the equation of multiple linear regression, as well as determine the optimal influence of the factors on state management of region's economy for increasing its sociality to the maximum level possible.

The specifics of building the social market economy in Russia are determined. Based on the established national peculiarities of the social market economy in Russia, the institutional matrix of social management in the Russian regions' economy is developed and it allows for optimal balance of stability and sustainability with innovations and digitalization.

This study aims to investigate the recent changes in the strategies of international hotel chains in the Russian market, as well as their role in the sustainable development of small and medium towns as prospective local tourism destinations.

General observation of the local environment, statistical analysis and a qualitative approach were used to reveal current developments in international hotel chains’ strategy in Russia, and new opportunities for a number of small towns to be embedded in the development of the Russian tourism market. The current scenarios were examined using the available secondary data, including federal statistics and relevant empirical studies, as well as case studies and personal interviews with industry experts that allowed access to respondents’ opinions and market knowledge.

In recent years, investment in the Russian regions has become more attractive for international hotel chains. Findings of the study add to the literature on emerging markets by presenting an overview of the main challenges facing international hotel chains in the Russian market and by stressing the facilitating effect of foreign hotel chains’ upon tourism infrastructure development in small and medium towns in Russian regions. The statistics presented, as well as key opinions of hoteliers and local authorities, contribute to an understanding of the strategies used by international hotel operators in emerging economies with reference to new evidence from Russia.

The main output of this study is that it yields a better understanding of the strategic movement of international hotel chains into the Russian regions and new opportunities to develop tourism infrastructure in small and medium cities situated in Russian regions as prospective tourism destinations.