The current Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025 has not solved a number of tasks in this area. The level of differentiation of the socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation, their budgetary and infrastructural security remains high. Citizens have not been provided with equal access to State-guaranteed services. The current mechanisms for the allocation of productive forces and the resettlement of the population are often non-systemic in nature. In addition, the external and internal conditions for the development of the country's economy and social sphere have changed significantly by now. The Russian Federation includes 4 new regions. The concentration of population and infrastructure facilities in the largest urban agglomerations hinders the overcoming of regional imbalances. The task of ensuring the unity of the legal, economic, financial, social, cultural and educational space remains urgent. The issue of the ongoing population decline in the territories of the North, Siberia and the Far East, as well as the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, is acute. Insufficient development of transport and energy infrastructure limits the potential of the regions, hinders the solution of tasks to increase the connectivity of the country's territory. In this regard, the task of smoothing out interregional imbalances by maximizing the full disclosure of the regions and municipalities’ own potential, and creating a comfortable living environment for citizens throughout the country is of strategic importance. This is the aim of the draft Strategy of spatial Development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 with a forecast up to 2036. The article attempts to answer the question: how much is the new version of the Strategy able to solve the accumulated problems in this area?

Modern Russia is going through difficult trials and as a state, as a civil society, it is in search of new ideas, meanings and goals for further development. Therefore, a more mature approach to the implementation of social policy is needed both at the federal, regional and local levels. This approach can become a standard of well-being. The general idea of the welfare standard implies equal access of citizens to public goods in any locality of the country. At the moment, programs are being implemented in a number of regions of Russia that can be called components of the well-being standard, but no universal concept has been created that would describe this standard. The authors of the study offer their vision of the standard of well-being and show that the process of its creation requires the efforts of the scientific community and active discussion. The result of the implementation of the well-being standard may be a gradual solution to the accumulated problems that concern Russian citizens. The study presents the successful experience of the regions, as well as analyzes the most common difficulties that hinder the successful implementation of state social projects and the development of individual regions. In the course of the study, it was proposed to supplement the federal standard with regional standards of well-being due to the specifics of a particular region.

The concept of sustainable development in modern territorial management is gaining momentum more intensively and dynamically. Socio-economic and environmental aspects are embedded in strategic national and regional documents of a long-term nature. The degree of achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted by the UN Agenda is assessed and monitored in various reports of international and industry organizations, which affects the reputational characteristics of countries. The publication presents the results of a review of the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals N 9 (SDG-9): “Industrialization, innovation and infrastructure” (Creation of sustainable infrastructure, promotion of inclusive and sustainable industrialization and innovation) in 5 subjects of the Russian Federation of the Central Chernozem macro-region for the period 2015–2022. Indicators for monitoring the achievement of SDG-9 in the regional context were proposed by the authors when comparing the national set of SDG indicators and statistical indicators characterizing the development of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The main research methods are systematization, content analysis and the method of structural and dynamic assessment. In the course of the study, a unified regional list of SDG-9 indicators was formed; an empirical assessment of this list of indicators was carried out on the materials of 5 subjects of the Central Chernozem macro-region and an overview of the degree of achievement of this goal in the studied regions. The authors conducted a comparative review of the strategies of social and economic development of the subjects of the Central Chernozem macro-region for the existence of principles of sustainable development.

In the first half of 2024, the dynamics of the total amount of regional budgets revenues slightly lagged behind the inflation rate. At the same time, the growth of own revenues of the consolidated budgets of the Russian Federation regions was largely determined by the dynamics of industrial production in most regions and the growth of average accrued wages. The dynamics of corporate income tax and personal income tax receipts have different directions – the receipts of the first decreased, and the second grew significantly. If, in total, for all subjects of the Russian Federation, the increase of personal income tax revenue offset the drop of corporate income tax, then for some regions the situation was different. At the same time, corporate income tax revenues of the federal budget were growing, mainly due to tax calculated on income from securities (dividends, interest). The previously formed tendency of the intergovernmental grants from the federal budget reduction continued. The share of targetеd grants in the structure of transfers has increased. The growth of expenditures of the consolidated budgets of the subjects of the Russian Federation practically follows the dynamics of revenue – slightly lags behind the rate of inflation. If there is a reduction in the volume of state sub-federal debt of all subjects of the Russian Federation, then in 21 regions the volume of debt has increased. The growth of the sub-federal debt occurred both due to an increase in the volume of budget loans and at the expense of expensive bank loans.

For the first time, Russia’s budget system is under large-scale stress in all areas: risks of losing the tax base due to international sanctions, a steady increase in unforeseen expenses, inflation risks, and rising debt servicing costs. In this regard, it is necessary to identify and analyze potential sources of financing the federal budget deficit as the main guarantor of budget stability. The article examines the state of the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation and the budgets of state extra-budgetary funds based on the results of the first half of 2024. It is shown that oil and gas revenues remain the main source of revenue growth. Among non-oil and gas revenues, personal income tax and VAT from domestic sales are growing at an accelerated rate. At the same time, the positive dynamics of some sectors of the Russian economy is largely due to budget financing. At the same time, inflation remains above target values, which forces the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to tighten monetary policy. The excess growth of federal budget expenditures and the increase in nominal rates threaten financial stability. In this regard, the article assesses the potential for financing the federal budget deficit in the context of strict borrowing restrictions. Based on the analysis of the state of the domestic federal loan bond market, a conclusion is made about the high risk of a liquidity crisis and the potential for placing domestic debt at the expense of non-bank financial institutions and individuals.

The study of the history of charity makes it possible to more accurately identify the initial period of the creation of the foundations of civil society in Russia. The article is devoted to the analysis of the activities of the Smolensk House of Diligence as an example of charitable practice in the Russian Empire of the late XIX – early XX century. Using a specific example, the author examines the history of the creation and development of houses of diligence in the regional plane, their role in public life and their influence on the formation of basic narratives of civil society in the imperial reality of that period. Special attention is paid to the analysis of economic aspects within the framework of the Smolensk House of Diligence and their role in the formation of new principles of “non-pedigree” communication in the society of post-reform Russia. The study allows the author to conclude that the study of projects such as the activities of charitable societies through the prism of economic history makes it possible to more fully assess them in the context of the power aspirations of local social groups and the importance of these actors in the formation of civil society in the late Imperial period.

Since 2014, the World Health Organization has been implementing a large-scale project to strengthen and develop national regulatory systems, which is aimed at increasing the availability of safe, effective and high-quality medicines and medical devices for the population of all countries, but primarily low- and middle-income countries. The project analyzes the maturity of national regulatory systems using a global benchmarking tool developed based on various regulatory authority assessment systems and has undergone extensive discussion and pilot testing; the results of national authorities that have reached high levels of maturity are published. A WHO List of Regulatory Authorities is also being formed, replacing the previously used concept of "stringent regulatory authorities". This List is recommended for use in regulatory reliance procedures by national regulatory authorities, purchasing structures of various levels and status: commercial, public, state or international. The regulatory quality of drug regulation is one of the critical factors of any national healthcare system. At the global level, it is directly related to goals 1,3,8,9 and 11 of sustainable development defined by the UN. The WHO project under consideration to assess maturity) of the regulatory system of the pharmaceutical sector is fundamentally different from similarly focused projects carried out in the past. First of all, the project focuses not on legal and regulatory/methodological documents, but on institutional and procedural aspects, i.e. on the structure and functions of regulatory bodies. Along with this, the project can have a significant impact on global pharmaceutical markets.

Russian scientific publications regularly publish materials, the authors of which explore the differences in the levels of socio-economic development of Russian regions. The problem is considered in various aspects, including from the point of view of determining the ability of regional economies to meet the needs of the population living within the borders of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The article presents the results of the rating of the subjects of the Russian Federation for 2019–2023 on the basis of the author’s methodology. With minor changes to the methodology, she continues a series of previously published papers. It is shown that during 2019–2023, for most subjects of the Russian Federation, there was an unstable trend in all three key components of the final index (social, economic, budgetary). There is no pronounced connection between the dynamics of the indicator of the Social Block and the degree of economic activity in the region. The vast majority of regions as a whole successfully overcame the crisis recessions of 2020 and 2022, but in 19 subjects of the Russian Federation the precarious values of the final index were not exceeded in 2023. The drop in the indices of the Social Block in 2020 was less significant than after the start of the support for the social sphere during the pandemic. In 2023, for most subjects of the Russian Federation, there was an upward trend in the Final Index and overcoming the recession associated with sanctions pressure. The response of the regions to this crisis varied, which was reflected in the different dynamics of all three components of the final index (Social, Economic and Budgetary blocks). A pronounced and growing dependence of the dynamics of the Social Block on federal transfers is shown both for regions with a downward trend in the index of the Economic block and for regions with an increase in economic activity.

In recent years, Russia has faced serious global challenges. Particular attention is required for demographic challenges, which are caused by natural population decline, ambiguous migration processes, and their exacerbation due to the spread of the coronavirus infection and subsequently the aggravation of the foreign policy situation. The largest Russian cities are centers of economic growth with significant potential for solving regional livelihood problems. An important indicator of the state and development of a city as a socio-economic system is the change in population size. The dynamics of demographic and other socio-economic indicators deserve detailed analysis and study. The results obtained must be considered when making strategic decisions and developing adaptation mechanisms. In the past five years, a natural population decline has prevailed in the studied largest municipalities, which is only partially offset by migration growth. In most cities with a population of over one million, there is a correlation between the dynamics of population growth (both natural and migration), the average wage level, and the quality of the urban environment. In cities with migration outflow, measures are needed to improve these parameters. Since all cities have developed industries, including due to natural and historical factors, systematic monitoring of the relevant indicators and a detailed analysis of the reasons for negative trends, including demographic ones, are important for ensuring balanced economic development. To ensure the balance of supply and demand in the labor market in terms of qualification and professional requirements and expectations, the implementation of regional programs and projects with the participation of government and business is proposed. In the context of the economic development of the largest cities and adaptation to global challenges, it is proposed that government authorities, local governments, the scientific community, and businesses identify new promising specializations for cities, including the need to enhance import substitution and implement high-tech, science-intensive industries.