Strategies  for the  socio-economic development  of  regions are  developed  in  accordance with the principle of using a modern methodology for making  effective decisions based on strategic planning.  Information basis for strategic planning  are indicators  of sustainable socio-economic development.  In modern  conditions, the role of sustainable  development analysis is increasing,  since the influence of external  and internal  factors of instability  of the regional economy  is growing. The  relevance  of the problem considered  in the article is due  to the  fact  that  the  quality  of the  analysis  of sustainable  development  of regions (taking into account factors of the external and internal environment  and their assessment) determines  the  adequacy   of  strategic  priorities  formed  during  planning.  Ensuring  this adequacy  is impossible without  identifying  the  differentiation  of the  Russian  regions by such key  indicators  of sustainability  as GR P per capita  and  human  development  index. Also in the article, the results of the rating of sustainable development  of Russian cities are presented; It is shown that economic instability not only negatively affects the sustainable development  of the economy, but also plays a constructive  role in the process of regional development.  The indicators characterizing the sustainable  development  of macro-regions (federal districts) are analyzed: industrial production index, real cash income of the population.  Particular  attention  is paid  to changing  the quality  of life of the population of the regions through indicators: poverty level of the population, level of education, life expectancy  of the population.  The  influence  of the size of public debt in Russian  regions on economic  instability  is shown.

The solution of the problem of attracting investments to the subjects of the Russian Federation requires  targeted  actions  to increase  their  investment  attractiveness  and  imposes  special requirements  on regional investment  management  systems.  The  relevance  of the  study  is due to the need to improve the management  of investment  processes in the region in order to strengthen  their  strategic orientation, providing  the  necessary  conditions  for attracting investment  in the regional economy. The article proposes an approach to the organization of investment management  in the region on the principles of strategy, which allows harmonizing the processes of regional strategic planning,  and, on this basis, provide conditions  for the realization of the positive effects of the impact of investments on the regional socio-economic system. The  place of investment  activity  in the system of regional strategic planning in the Russian Federation is shown. The proven instability of the dynamics  of investments  in fixed capital, justified by the spatial heterogeneity of investment  processes, as well as a tendency to its strengthening in the current economic  conditions.  The  content  of investment  activity management  at the regional level, the most important component of which  is strategic goal-setting, is disclosed. Stages are defined  and the content of strategic planning of investment activity at the regional level is concretized. The priority directions of increasing the investment attractiveness of the regions of Russia, in particular, the development  of strategic investment processes, mechanisms  of public-private partnership, the creation of zones of territorial development.

The national project Housing and urban environment ” occupies a special place among the totality of national projects because it concerns the issues, which affect every citizen of Russia. In terms of cash execution for 2018, this project is among the leaders, after health, demography and science. Despite overall positive results of the first year, still there are serious problems, which limit the opportunities for socio-economic recovery of Russia. Thus, is not fully understood the question of the correlation between the targets of national projects and the indicators of socio-economic development strategies of various levels; the substitution of grants with targeted subsidies within the framework of national projects de facto limits the independence of regions and municipalities in the implementation of their social and economic policy. In the case of the national project “Housing and urban environment” there are besides some other questions. For example, in assessing the urban environment quality index, spatial development is reduced mainly to predominantly architectural and planning organization of urban space; the prospects for new mechanisms of housing financing are not quite clear. The article analyzes the progress in the fulfillment of the national project “Housing and urban environment” and summarizes the most interesting practices, including in the sphere of “smart city” development.

The Charter of the Subject of the Russian Federation, being an integral part of the constitutional legislation of Russia, is intended to carry out legal regulation of the most important public relations of constitutional significance. In the course of development of regional legislation, certain contradictions inevitably arise, forming problems specific to each federal subject. Based on the conceptual approach proposed by the author, this article considers a number of problematic issues that arose during the statutory regulation of public relations in the Stavropol Territory. An understanding of the source of the government of the Stavropol Territory, which is the people of the Stavropol Territory as part of the multinational people of the Russian Federation, has been proposed. The necessity of increasing of statutory rules that have direct effect has been substantiated, the arguments in favor of the creation of the Charter Court of the Stavropol Territory have been presented, new regulations to ensure the stability of the Charter of the Stavropol Territory have been formulated. The theoretical provisions set forth in the article, as well as proposals for their legislative implementation, according to the author, can be used to improve the statutory regulation of other subjects of the Russian Federation, taking into account their regional characteristics.

Public-private partnership (PPP) has turned to become a constantly replicated stamp, which is widely used both in Russia and abroad. PPP is associated with the forms of organization of economic cooperation between the state and the private business, which bring benefits to both partners: the state develops public infrastructure (public good), saving budgetary funds and focusing on the experience of private investors; private investors use a stable risk-free” sphere of their investments with a stable long-term rate of return under the patronage of the state. However, in Russia as well as in other countries of the world, PPP projects are expanding slowly, especially in socially significant infrastructure as a powerful driver of future economic growth. In this regard, the problem of creating the conditions necessary to ensure the multiplier effect of budget financing of public infrastructure in conditions of a deficit of public finances is becoming especially urgent. It is advisable for the state to use budget financing not to invest in PPP projects, but to ensure the interests of private investors, including institutional players.

The efficiency of any model of federative relations is determined by how it corresponds to the historical background and realities of a country at a particular development stage. In Russia the model that might be called “unitary federalism ” is applied. It was formed in the early noughties and had favorable results as it prevented the collapse of the Russian Federation or its transformation into a Confederation. At the same time the high centralization of financial resources and powers at the Federal level does not contribute to the further development of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. There is a lot of evidence for this: a high level of interregional socio-economic inequality, disproportions in the level of development and budget provision of regions, low rates of GRP growth. There are only 15 or 16 regions-“donors” among 85 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Russian federalism requires the formation of a new balance between state powers and resources. In fact “Bases of the state policy of regional development of the Russian Federation for the period till 2025” approved by the decree of Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation are aimed at achievement of the above mentioned goal. The issue of the Federation Council as an institution itself and in terms of its implementation of constitutional powers will arise at a certain period of these changes. In this regard the experience of the European Union may become useful. The article examines the theoretical basis of the evolution of federalism and of the European integration. A parallel is drawn between the Federation and the Integration association, a comparative analysis of the formation, organization and activities of the Council of the European Union and the Federation Council is carried out. Particular attention is paid to the legislative process, as well as to the implementation of the principle of federalism in the activities of these institutions.

Russian legislation on strategic planning demands the elaboration of strategies for the socio-economic development of macroregions, but the implementation of this norm has proved to be a difficult task, such strategies are not yet approved. The study analyzes the existing Russian and foreign experience in the formation of macro-regions and the working out of strategies for their development, current Russian problems in this area, and offers solutions. It is argued that the formation of macroregions allows to overcome the shortcomings of the administrative-territorial division without changing it, as well as to organize interregional cooperation. At the same time, macro-regions can act as objects of regional policy of the national government and strategic planning, units of statistical accounting, can be used to optimize the public management and organization of cooperation of regions. It is shown that the macro-regions allocated in the Strategy of spatial development of the Russian Federation are forced to be based on the existing grid of federal districts, and the main unsolved problem is the lack of clear approaches to the management of macro-regions. Creation of strategies for the development of macro-regions in order to ensure coherence in the territorial context of countrywide strategic documents/programmes faces the problem of almost complete absence in them of the regional component, in order to make management decisions on placement of social infrastructure objects — the disparity between macro-regions and real economic areas, in view of federal regional policy — the problem of duplication of state programs, development of interregional cooperation with the deficit of regional initiatives. It is proposed to abandon the single grid of macro-regions and uniform approaches to the working out of strategies for their development. The formation of the system of strategic planning of macroregions should be progressive, as the necessary conditions appear for this.

The relevance of this article is due to the high strategic importance of the Murmansk region as a priority region of Russia, providing a significant contribution to the economy and national security of the state in the framework of the formation of a new development model. Based on the analysis, the main threats to the development of the Murmansk region were singled out: single-industry specialization, reducing the number of small enterprises, etc., as well as the most priority areas for realizing the potential of the region: a substantial supply of natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and stable production growth. It is substantiated that with a developed and dynamically developing economy, availability of transport infrastructure, a convenient geographic location with direct access to ocean trade routes, it is the Murmansk region that is naturally the main base and starting point for work on structural modernization and development of the entire Russian Arctic. As a mechanism for overcoming the existing threats to the development of the Murmansk region, intensive development of cluster initiatives is proposed.

Social tension is a multidimensional concept, reflecting, among other, the degree of dissatisfaction with living conditions. The major “sorepoints” are the living standard decline, high and rising poverty level, lack of housing, labor conflicts, etc.

The article presents the results of statistical analysis of social tension level in Russian regions. The analysis was carried out for years 2016 and 2018 using data provided by the Federal State Statistic Service of Russian Federation (Rosstat). Definition of principal and relevant living standard criteria was accented in the research. The obtained results were compared using econometric modeling tools.

As the population of the world continues to grow and living standards continue to improve, we must find an adequate solution for housing issues. The first part of this paper tried to shed more light on the drawbacks and the past anomalies of the world mortgage market. We observed different continents and tried to point out the main causes behind the bottlenecks of mortgage markets. The reasons varied across countries but some similarities emerged, such as that in the initial period repayments places a huge financial burden on households. The second part of the paper introduces a new mortgage market formula which is based on the concept of “continuity of the present value of the repayments”. This solution provides lower and, in present value terms, even initial monthly repayments for the borrower. The new approach offers an alternative to renting and could serve as a good tool to help achieve home ownership, as well as lead to a healthier global mortgage market.

He development of the far Eastern Federal district, strengthening its economic and innovative potential, and improving the quality of people’s lives remains an important state priority. The measures taken by the Government have brought certain results: the number of territories of advanced development is increasing, jobs are created at the expense of attracted funds of investors and budget investments. At the same time, the regions of the Far East continue to experience difficulties in the financial provision of expenditure obligations, there are risks in the stability of the budgets of the subjects associated with a significant amount of debt obligations, with a simultaneous increase in infrastructure spending due to the need to achieve national goals and objectives. The total amount of public debt has almost doubled since 2014. All regions of the far Eastern Federal district have debts, except for the Sakhalin region. The example of the far Eastern regions shows that the replacement of commercial lending budget only allowed to change the structure of public debt and reduce the cost of its service, but did not affect the reduction of its total volume. The article considers the mechanism of sub-Federal bonds as a source of covering the budget deficit of the regions of the Far East, which are currently practically not represented in the bond market. At the same time, the current policy of the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance of Russia allows to create favorable conditions for placement of long-term bond loans. The decline by the Bank of Russia key rate and the subsequent lowering of rates of return, increase investors ‘ demand for government securities and bonds, allowing the regions to decide issues of financing infrastructure development along with the improvement of the debt structure. 

The contract price, in fact, is the only criteria for selecting supplier in procurement for state and municipal needs. However, price reduction is often achieved by loss of quality of goods supplied or work performed. The issue of quality assurance is especially crucial for kindergartens and schools. In Borovsk municipal district of Kaluga region the model of children nutrition quality ensuring was developed. This model was named “Children. Quality of food — quality of life”. The model of children nutrition quality ensuring is built on ongoing quality control by independent laboratory, systematic work with suppliers and goods acceptance procedure formalization.

To maintain the status of global power in today\s modern world economy the Russian government strives to build an innovative economy as well as to achieve certain goals in social and economic development. This goal is reflected in «The long-term strategy for social and economic development of the Russian Federation until 2020» (the Strategy) and special government programs. Do’s the currently implemented by the Russian government economic policy taking into account the necessity for achieving goals? Isn’t there a contradiction with the Russian foreign trade policy? To answer these questions let’s have a look at the Russian foreign trade with China, which is one of the most important strategic and trade partner of Russia.