The slowdown in Russia’s economic growth to the “covid crisis”, as well as the possibility of restoring growth and forming a new model of it, are associated with the need to overcome structural constraints. Moreover, the plans for the recovery of the Russian economy note the need not only for a stimulating macroeconomic policy, but also for the implementation of structural changes through technological renewal. However, technological modernization is highly dependent on the existing mode of technological development – the current and future demand for new technologies. The implementation of the country’s technological development strategy requires an assessment of the existing technological structure with a measurement of its reaction to ongoing investments in support of obsolete and emergence of new technologies. Different sectors of the economy and its regions, having a different set of technologies and their structure, show a different level of manufacturability, which is understood as the ratio of the volume of innovative to non-innovative products. The sensitivity of this parameter to investments in new and outdated technologies is also different, which cannot be taken into account in the formation of investment and technological development policies for both individual regions and Russia as a whole. Using structural and regression analysis, this study provides a picture of the structure of the technological Russian economy. It is shown that technological modernization also involves the movement of resources in the sectoral and regional context in order to eliminate structural and technological imbalances in development. Investment policy should be reduced not only to increasing investments, but also to managing their structure in conjunction with replacing old technologies in order to level and improve the overall manufacturability. This will require solving the promising problem of increasing the sensitivity of manufacturability to investments in new technologies. In the long term, this approach will make it possible to single out the modes of regional technological development, not only ranking regions in terms of sensitivity to new and old technologies, but also developing a selective set of regional policy measures.

Keywords: “covid crisis”, economic growth, industrialization, investments, structural changes, structural dynamics, technologies, technological effectiveness of the regional economy.

The adoption of the Strategy for the Spatial Development of the Russian Federation marked a new stage in the development of the practice of territorial strategizing. However, the lack of terminological clarity is one of the factors limiting the potential of this institution. Thus, the sustainability of socio-economic development, which is somehow present as the main goal in most territorial strategies, raises a number of questions. Taking into account the accumulated domestic and world experience, there are several interpretations of this concept: sustainability as stable rates of economic growth; sustainability as a concept developed at the UNO, requiring a balanced account of the environmental, social and economic components of social development; resistance to counteraction to various challenges and shocks. This article attempts to outline the main problems that arise due to the lack of clarity in the “dilution” of these concepts. In the world scientific literature and practice, the territorial potential for resilience to disasters has long been described by the concept of “resilience”, the content of which is considered in the paper.

At present, local governments are unable to fulfil their cultural mandate either in terms of their functionality, or in the context of the required funding, or in terms of the scale and importance of tasks related to the development of culture. The article examines the problem of the ability of local governments to address the cultural agenda: the content of the network of municipal cultural institutions and ensuring the availability of cultural goods for the general population. The actions of the state over the past three decades testify to the implementation in Russia of managerial decisions that are extremely unfriendly to the cultural sphere. Firstly, we are talking about the reform of the budgetary sector, marked by the optimization, unification and commercialization of cultural institutions and a reduction in the number of employees. Secondly, within the framework of the reform of local government, all responsibility for the functioning of the so-called grassroots level of culture: public libraries, cultural and leisure institutions, local museums and art schools was transferred to the municipal level without bringing the required amount of public funding. The situation is aggravated by the accumulated socio-economic problems of municipalities, which reflected in the cultural sphere. A way out of the closed circle is seen in the revision and a clear definition of the area of responsibility of local government bodies in the field of culture and guaranteed public funding.

The introduction of large-scale amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation actualizes the discussion on the areas of development of Russian legislation on local selfgovernment. The article examines the social and legal nature of Russian local self-government, substantiates the conclusion about its duality (the level of public power and the institution of civil society), analyzes the place and role of local self-government in the unified system of public authority. The author comes to the conclusion that the goal of further improving the legislation on local self-government should be recognized as an increase in the efficiency of local self-government in two directions: in solving issues of local importance and performing other public functions (operational efficiency), as well as in meeting the request of citizens for direct participation in the management of common deeds (social efficiency). Based on this goal, possible scenarios for the development of legislation on local self-government are analyzed in two aspects: the territorial structure of local self-government and the competence of local self-government.

The problem of climate change is a global challenge of the XXI century for all mankind. However, despite the adoption of the Paris climate agreement, which is designed to synchronize the actions of various countries, individual countries or groups of countries are taking the path of obtaining unilateral preferences under the pretext of fulfilling the obligations stipulated in the agreement. The article analyzes the challenges and risks that Russia may face in the absence of its own greenhouse gas regulation systems against the background of the declared and implemented in a number of countries policy of achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions. Ways to fully utilize the potential absorption capacity of Russian forests and other ecosystems in relation to the goals of the Paris climate agreement are considered. We are talking about potential effects for the Russian economy in the form of domestic investment in forest projects to absorb CO2, while increasing the competitiveness of Russian export products in the context of the introduction of protectionist measures by individual countries under the pretext of fighting for “climate neutrality”.

The current model of state regulation in China has allowed it to take a special place in the modern process of reformatting the system of international economic relations. This model, based on a combination of strategic and indicative planning, market competition, and targeted lending to significant government projects, allowed us to ensure not only the growth of consumption, but also the development of investment platforms aimed at reducing risks, creating social entrepreneurship institutions, and so on. Strengthening economic cooperation between the PRC and the Russian Federation is an important factor in solving not only the internal problems of both countries, but also strengthening stability in the far Eastern region. The article analyzes the problems of Russian-Chinese cooperation related to the increase in financial flows between the two countries, mutual investment, the lack of existing bilateral effective and reliable settlement channels and payment systems, etc. In General, strengthening cooperation between Russia and China is an important component of the structural modernization of the domestic economy.

In the face of intense technological changes, the issues of highlighting the most sought after professions, including workers and mid-level professionals, to determine priorities in vocational education are particularly relevant. The article presents the results of a study dedicated to the experience of using the list of 50 professions most in demand in the labor market requiring secondary vocational education (hereinafter the list of top 50) in the regions. It has been established that most often in the regions the list of top 50 is used to determine the professions for the implementation of vocational education and training, the formation of control figures for admission to professional educational organizations and to determine the directions for the development of vocational education in the region. The top 50 list is the basis for the formation of regional lists of the most in-demand professions (top-region) that meet the needs of regional labor markets. This determines the need for regular (once every three years) updating of these lists. Based on the results of the study, proposals were formed on the formation of lists of demanded professions, which were taken into account when preparing an updated list of the top 50.