The article is devoted to systems analysis of Russian space phenomenon in historical retrospective, its genesis, contents, cause-investigation peculiarities and dynamics of formation and development. It is shown that processes of finding and development of the space have taken centuries, come through various directions, with various intensity and primarily were concomitant with extraordinary consequences. Peculiarities of different stages of Russian space systems transformation are revealed – pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet. The author sees the sense of the present stage in the necessity of removing the main contradiction of vital functions’ space organization in the country, stipulated by transition from socialism to market.

In the first half of 2020, with a marked reduction in tax revenues, there was an increase in the total amount of revenues of the consolidated budgets of the subjects of the RF, which in most cases did not compensate for the rate of inflation. The growth of the total amount of revenue was provided by the outstripping growth of all types of Federal transfers to the regional budgets. The situation in different regions of the country varied significantly, and the most serious losses were incurred by the most economically developed regions. Moscow bear the burden of a significant part of the total revenue loss. The growth of expenditures of the consolidated budgets of the Russian regions was significantly faster than the growth of their revenues. Health and social policy funding has increased most significantly, supported in part by Federal transfers. With the total deficit of the consolidated budgets of the Russian regions, about half of the regions had a positive budget balance (partly of a technical nature) at the end of the half-year. At the same time, the growth rate of public debt is not yet critical.

The article highlights the features of employment in the Arctic zone of Russia. The main one is the disparity between the importance of the AZRF in the country’s economy and the constant shortage of workers. This disparity has not arisen now, but is a traditional problem since the Soviet Union, which created a certain management mechanism that promotes the development of this potential. This mechanism was based on state ownership of the property of enterprises and organizations, a centralized system of recruitment of personnel attracted to work from other regions, as well as wages and social packages in order to ensure their material interest in work. All this is against the background of unfavorable climatic conditions for health, lagging service infrastructure (housing, education, medicine), difficulties in providing food and personal consumption goods - primarily due to agricultural production and hence dependence on the center for all these items.

The urgency of the problems under consideration is related to the transition of Russia to a new model of economic development based on innovation and technical modernization. The author makes an attempt to prove that one of the most promising and priority directions for the formation of reserves for the growth of the domestic economy is the use of the potential of the Northern sea route. For this highway to become commercially viable, environmentally sustainable and safe, it will need ports and modern infrastructure for transshipment, refueling, search and rescue operations and environmental restoration. The purpose of the article is to study the current state of development of Arctic seaports, identify problems and prospects for further development, taking into account the international situation and opportunities to strengthen the economic security of the state. The following research methods are used: systematization, generalization, and graphical representation of statistical information. The scientific approach to quantitative research showed that the growth of transit traffic was the slowest compared to other parameters in the Northern sea route operations. Identified problems of port infrastructure, associated with obsolescence of fixed assets, lack of bandwidth ports, low efficiency of reloading capacities, the limited tools for attracting private investment, lack of technical level of existing specialized equipment to modern requirements, etc. The key directions of modernization of the port infrastructure of the Northern sea route are formulated: they include the development of effective investment mechanisms, improvement of legislation on the development of public-private partnership mechanisms, the introduction of joint procedures with neighboring countries to ensure the safety of navigation, the renewal of the domestic icebreaking and conventional fleets, as well as the creation of deep-sea terminals, and this list can be continued. The proposed measures will ensure the intensive functioning of the port infrastructure of the Northern sea route and will contribute to the solution of socio-economic problems and the successful implementation of a new innovative model of Russia’s development.

Energy supply is a necessary condition for supporting normal life and activities of humans. Problem of providing reliable and accessible energy supply becomes extremely important under the Arctic severe climate. Organization of energy supply is affected by many factors. It is suggested to consider natural-resource, economical, social, technological, ecological, and legal factors. Legal factors set legal framework for energy enterprises and energy consumers to act. Economic relations, social guarantees for energy consumers, technological and environmental requirements for energy industry are legally regulated. Thus, legal factors determine other factors of energy supply to significant extent. In this regard, an analysis of the powers and functions of federal and regional authorities in the field of energy supply regulation is relevant. Most of the powers of energy supply regulation are concentrated at the federal level. At the level of the subjects of the Russian Federation energy supply issues are regulated by regional authorities within the framework of their powers. Ensuring reliable energy supply to consumers requires coordinated actions of authorities and energy sector enterprises, taking into account the whole variety of considered factors.

The analysis of the evolutionary development of local budgets revenue and spending at the turn of XIX and XX centuries allows us to abandon the point of view that has become familiar to Russian economic literature about the traditional and unconditional priority of the state’s economic interests over the economic and social interests of local territorial communities in Russia. The study of the process of formation of Zemstvo and city finances leads us to the conclusion that in retrospect there was a significant independence of territorial government bodies from the General system of state administration. The article presents the facts of the existence in Russia of a system of local taxes and property sources of income that ensure the financial independence of territorial entities. The article clearly shows that at the turn of XIX and XX centuries in Russia local administration structures were based on traditions similar to the principles of independence and self-sufficiency of local self-government systems widely used in modern practice in democratic countries.

The main objective of the article is to expand the problematic field of church historical research by including an analysis of the influence of external conditions generated by the secular environment (global systemic crisis) on the dynamics and quality of systemic processes within institutional churches in recent times. The systemic crisis, into which the world economy entered at the very beginning of the 21st century (the crisis of the growth model based on over-lending to the economy), combined with standard cyclical crises, produces serious social processes, in particular in the religious sphere. Economic instability in society affects the economic activities of religious institutions, stimulates age shifts (aging) and gender movements, and has a definite impact on such religious institutions as liturgical activity and the canonical system. In this context, any measures of state influence on religious institutions (in the specific case, pandemic restrictions) are perceived as attempts, if not persecution, then unjustified pressure. The internal resistance of traditionalist-oriented actors stimulates the development of the internal structural crisis of religious institutions.

The author, using data of health care systems and COVID in the USA, Italy and other countries makes a conclusion that effective parrying of pandemic threats demands correction of a health care system and its financing. In particular, expansion of access for «marginal» social groups to services of out-patient and polyclinic institutions including non-payable services on a constant basis is necessary. Situation when involvement of the low-paid migrants who are actually excluded from regional health care systems allows to get excess profit for employers, creates for society not only additional expenses, but also risks of catastrophic development of epidemiological situations. Such employers are a kind of «free-riders» too expensive for society.

The spread of a new type of coronavirus on the territory of most countries has tested public health systems, but also exposed the problem points, the impact of which will be felt for an exceptionally long time. The trigger mechanism that formed them consists of many elements. Among them: the temporary stagnation of world economy; the actual death of many enterprises within national economies; the unpreparedness of medical institutions for a huge influx of infected people. Separately, socio-psychological factors worked: the loss of many citizens ‘ jobs; a radical change in lifestyle – life will never be the same; the collapse of hopes and the loss of meaning of life for many, especially low-income groups. The consequence of this is the growing geography of social pathologies (drug addiction, alcoholism, crime, suicide). There was also an increase in panic among the population caused by fear of an unknown infection or a painful reaction to the introduction of restrictive measures designed to contain the spread and development of the COVID-19 virus epidemic. The article provides analytical material that reflects the degree of influence of processes and mechanisms of regional economy response to the consequences of a large-scale epidemic of new coronavirus. The focus is on determining the degree of impact of COVID-19 on the AML/CFT sphere, analyzing the number of recorded predicate crimes. The Siberian Federal district of the Russian Federation and its constituent regions are considered as an example.

Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 shock the entire world. Some countries with federal system have troubles, because the results of their functioning in the new conditions was inconsistent: some countries showed a low level of fatality from the coronavirus in general controlled the situation, but others had the highest incidence and in the background – the destabilization of the socio-economic and even political situation. The article analyzes the main trends of global development in the context of a pandemic, foreign and domestic experience of functioning of system of public authorities on federal, regional and local levels, measures to ensure the smooth operation of public authorities at all levels in a pandemic, as well as problems in the functioning of public authorities in the new conditions. This allows us to conclude that federal state system, on the one hand, has its advantages in countering these threats, including the possibility of a differentiated approach to different territories, well-established mechanisms of interaction between the levels of public power, and, on the other hand, it is characterized by a some types of risks, such as an imbalance of power, authority and resources in the federal system and a lag in making the necessary decision. It may be the reason of sharp decline in the pace of socio-economic development and the situation in the regions out of the control of the federal authorities. In the context of a pandemic, there are certain problems associated with insufficient coordination between levels of government, but they can be overcome through the use of various management mechanisms.

The pandemic of a new coronavirus infection for the Russian economy was a double shock: against the background of the spread of COVID-19, oil prices fell sharply. This was a serious shock for the economy and budget revenues. However, it was the budget expenditures that played a major role in supporting output. In addition, monetary policy was expansionary. Thus, in the first half of 2020, a combination of stimulating fiscal and expansionary monetary policies was observed. This combination increased the demand for government bonds. During the periods of the next decrease in the key rate of the Central Bank, an increase in the yield of OFZ was observed. Despite the fact that the level of Russia’s debt burden is low, there are specific risks that limit the possibilities for increasing debt. These include possible sanctions, a weakening of the ruble, falling incomes of the households and a high probability of an increase in bankruptcies of those organizations that will not be able to survive the consequences of the introduction of restrictive measures. Given these risks, it is necessary to consider mechanisms to support the economy using debt instruments and quantitative easing policies.

The urgent worldwide shift of school education to online format resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic raised a number of problems of a technical, organizational, methodological, and psychological nature. These problems are surveyed by both the international community and national researchers. Equally important is the assessment of the consequences of education in a remote format for the quality of education and equal access to education. The article considers how the transition to remote education will affect the equity of access to quality education, differentiation of students’ educational results on a territorial and socio-economic basis. Analysis and evaluation were carried out using data collected before the mass transition to online learning: the results of the international survey of the quality of education PISA, surveys of the Federal State Statistics Service, and regular educational statistics. Differentiation of learning conditions, interregional variation, and differences in the ability of households to use ICT to participate in online learning are examined. Preliminary assessments of the impact of the transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic on strengthening differentiation of access to quality education and learning outcomes are made.

This year marks exactly 100 years since the creation of a kind of state formation on part of the territory of our country – the FER. The article analyzes one of the little-studied pages of the history of the Russian Far East – the prerequisites for the creation, the struggle for independence and the loss of independence of the Far Eastern republic that existed in the period 1920-1922. The article uses the methods of the principle of objective historicism; synchronous method, the method of historical modeling, the features of the Civil War in the Far East, the foreign policy grounds for the creation of the FER, the reasons for the creation of the FER, the struggle of the armed forces of the FER with the White Guards and interventionists, the relationship between Soviet Russia and the FER, the reasons for the loss of independence of the FER are analyzed. In conclusion, the author comes to the conclusion that the Far Eastern republic was a buffer, which, having protected Soviet Russia from Japanese aggression, was doomed to disappear from the political map of the world.

The sanitary and epidemiological situation that developed at the beginning of this year due to the spread of a new coronavirus infection and the subsequent quarantine measures had a negative impact on the Russian economy. The government of the Russian Federation, the Central Bank, the Federal Assembly, and heads of state authorities responded to the pandemic as soon as possible and took measures to support the population, the sectors of the economy at risk, small and medium-sized businesses, and system-forming enterprises. Additional financial assistance was provided to families with children, citizens who lost their jobs, small and medium-sized businesses, and regional budgets. In addition, earned credit programs on concessionary terms In the article the basic state measures, which helped in difficult times of crisis to preserve the stability of the financial system and support demand of the population is presented indicators of the dynamics of business. However, the modern economy needs a broader set of measures that will allow businesses not only to overcome difficulties, but also to develop at a faster pace, since the negative effect on the Russian economy from a decrease in external demand and restrictive measures to combat the spread of coronavirus may have at the end of this 2020 year.