In the modern world BlockChain technology, as well as cryptocurrencies a s a for m of monet ar y i mplement ation of th i s tech nolog y, are r apid ly spread i ng and introduced in various areas of public and private sectors. In this case, the technology of distributed storage and data processing implies the absence of centralized control. Such decentralization does not always satisfy governments’ politicians of different countries who, at least, want to protect their citizens from scammers and prevent illegal financing of terrorists, but as a maximum, do not want unorganized cash flows, financing of illegal organizations on the territory of the country. The article examines the policy of various countries in the sphere of cryptocurrencies’ regulation, as well as technical aspects of both introduced regulation and those regulations, which can only appear.

Histor ical memor y and lessons of the pa st ev idently set us the ta sk of evolu-tionar y transfor mation of the socia l and econom ic str uct u re of the countr y. Today it’s especially important not to destroy the fragile balance of social and economic conditions of the Russian society existence. But is it possible to overcome the current recession with a minimum growth rate of the economy? The priority of the budget concept the period 2018-2020 is the reduction of the budget deficit and reducing inflation. But such a policy will not be able to reverse the trend of stagnant development and remove the threat of the fall of Russia’s share in world GDP. Modern budget concept doesn’t generate the necessary conditions for accelerating growth of the economy of Russia and its regions. Moreover, it creates a number of threats to economic and social security of the country. It is necessary to create a unified system of strategic budgeting, oriented to the priority task of the financial support of internal factors of economic growth.

T he ar ticle con sider s the m a i n t a sk s of the state pol icy of SME development and support, related to the implementation of the target Strategy until 2030, as well as with its updating, which inevitably is dictated to this policy with the modern trends of Russian economy development. The author emphasizes that the Strategy and the works’ plan for its implementation should be promptly adjusted in accordance with the approval of the key strategic planning documents and the identification of new branch and spatial “growth points” of Russian economy. The article expresses the view that the success of the SME Strateg y wou ld equ a l ly depend on how work a ble a r e si m i lar docu ments of s u b -federal level, in particular, in terms of their integration into the strategies of socio-economic development of subjects of Federation and economically most significant municipal units.

The development of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship (SME) today is regulated with a set of legislative and other legal acts. This process takes place among the most important priorities in the development of municipalities. SME provides replenishment of local budgets, contributes to the development of competitive environment and to the saturation of local market with vital goods and services and as well plays a role of the most important sour ce of j ob s . I n the f r a mework of s tr ateg ic pla n n i n g, mu n icipa l u n it s elabo -rate programs of entrepreneurship development. However, the lack of own financial resources for the realization of SME development programs leads to the fact that the bulk of municipal financial support for this sector is realized at the expense of subsidies, provided both by federal and regional budgets. The paper di scus ses institutiona l for m s of suppor t for SME and analyzes thei r contents and targets.

The competence of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the sphere of i nter n ational r elation s a nd t he divi sion of p ower s i n t h i s area bet we en the Russian Federation and its subjects are clearly defined by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the federal legislation. But quite another situation exists in the legal regulation of international activities of municipal units. The analysis of the competence scope of municipalities in this area, as well as problems of legal ensuring of international cooperation of municipalities, show that the existing legal framework for the implementation by local self-government bodies of their powers in carrying out international and foreig n econom ic relation s is not enough now. It is necess a r y to adopt a new, un if ied for the reg ional and mun icipal levels Federal law «On the coordi nation of international relations of the subjects of the Russian Federation and municipal units».

The analysis of foreign experience and scientific literature makes possible to fix the relationship between intellectual property rights’ protection and economic growth. The same experience shows that in the situation of innovative activity of the enterprises and sufficient competition on industry markets a developed system of intellectual property rights is the necessary condition for economic growth. Secondary data analysis of several surveys of innovative enterprises in Russia in 2014-2017 enables to state a hypothesis about the absence of the necessary level of innovation and patent activities due to lack of competition. Basing on the results of the meta-review and the analysis of the Russian data, the author concludes that the strengthening of intellectual property rights itself cannot be the absolute determinant of economic growth in Russia.

The issues, related to the influence of administrative decentralization on the ef f iciency of pu bl ic ad m i n istr ation, t he qu al ity of publ ic s er v ice s’ del iver y and the efficiency of budget expenditures still stay at the centre of attention in the international theoretical and empirical studies. Foreign studies reveal positive i mpact of the decentral i zation over t he gover nance ef fectiveness and a s well highlight the risks, related to the delegating of powers to the subnational and local levels. This article, basing on the review of international literature and empirical studies, identifies the advantages and risks of administrative decentralization. These conclusions should be taken into account for the elaboration of the proposals for the further decentralization of powers in the Russian context.

At the regional level at present moment there is a purposeful process of introduction of qualitatively new forms of economic relations, aimed at the strengthening the innovative capacity of business entities. The most important among these forms is the cluster organization, which requires reflection and normative fixing in legal acts of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The article is devoted to the identifying the factors, which contribute to the ach ievement of s y ner g y ef fe ct i n the f r a mework of t he i n novat ive d evelop m ent of textile cluster. The article considers the authors’ views on the understanding of the definition of “cluster” and the aspects, related to the territorial planning of innovative activities. The paper considers the approaches to the formation of the cluster policy, the concept of territorial associations in the form of clusters and innovation clusters. The authors review the documents, related to investment programs at the federal and regional level. The study of the clusters made it possible to identify the most significant problems, the solution of which is largely connected with the innovative reorientation of the textile industry.

Scientists-regionalists use different interpretation to describe the main characteristics of economic space. Variety of interpretations, which exist on conceptual level, often acts as a factor, which impedes the collaborative research. This fact forms the necessity for some unify of the conceptual appa-r at u s i n t h i s i nve s tig ati n g spher e. T he su bj e ct of t he r e s e ar ch i s the t he oretica l reflection of economic relations and links, which appear between elements of economic space and also between their features and contradictions. The paper shows the differences in understanding of economic space as a form of organization and positioning of material objects and the receptacle of economic relations and links. On the base of the description of the main characteristics and typical markers of economic space the paper proves the necessity of measuring of its state: uniform (homogeneous) or incoherent (heterogeneous). The paper illustrates the influence of internal and external cau ses a nd consequences of i ncoherency of econom ic space, wh ich was caused by the influence of its main elements. The author comes to the conclusion about the necessity of standardizations of theoretical statements, related to the description of economic space.

In the first half of 2017 took place the recovery of business activity in the foreig n econom ic sphere a nd at the i nter na l market. Positive econom ic dy n a m ics influenced the revenues of Russian budget system. The increase of oil and gas budget revenues was the most significant (following the oil prices increase). But there was also non oil and gas revenue growth. The increase of total volume of consolidated budget revenues reflects as well at the expenditure side of the budget. The amount of social policy and housing and public utilities financing increased in real terms. Sufficient growth of federal budget revenues didn’t allow yet the get budget deficit elimination, but the amount of the deficit has been significantly reduced. Though the consolidated budgets of the subjects of the Russian Federation in the first half of 2017 were executed with the overall surplus, the budget situation in different regions varies greatly. During the first half of 2017 still remained the deficit of the state social funds, mainly determined by the Russian Pension fund deficit.

The accumulated debt of the regions, which reached the level of 2 trillion rubles two years ago, remains stable. At the same time, its structure, depending on the subject of the Russian Federation, is undergoing significant changes due to the shift of the regions’ development objectives towards ensuring social stabi l ity. A nalysis of trends i n the reg ional debt management shows that the t ask of the development of real sector of economy and the attraction of investments has paled into minor significance.

The Arctic zone of the Russian Federation has always stayed at the centre of attention for the leadership of our country. Already in 1916 the first document was issued, which included certain lands of the Arctic zone to the territory of the Russian Empire. At present, interest to Arctic is growing in all countries, even in those, which geographically are far from it. First of all, this is due to the discovery of large volumes of hydrocarbon reserves and to the development of the Northern Sea Route. The Russian Federation has adopted a state program “Socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation for the period until 2020”. It includes the main directions of the development of the Arctic zone and some key indicators. The article presents the results of the statistical characteristics of the subjects of Federation of the Arctic zone of Russia.

President of the Russian Federation, bodies of legislative, executive and judicial branches of the state power are equally responsible for ensuring the opportunity of the right for housing realization. The role of the President of the Russian Federation is to set the key directions, in which the work of the relevant state bodies should be done to ensure this right. The task of the legislative branch of the state power is the development of an effective legal and regulatory framework. Ensuring the rights of citizens for housing is mostly the function of the executive branch of power. In this regard, the executive authorities should improve their activities, generalize and implement best practices, aimed to solve the housing problem. The judiciary power plays a special role in ensuring the right for housing, which is caused by specifics of cour ts’ activ it y, namely v ia the adm i n istr ation of justice. To solve the ex isti ng housing problem, it’s needed to implement effective and agreed actions by all listed entities of power; thereby it would be possible to achieve synergetic effect of the focused collaboration.