Maintaining a competitive environment is an important factor in the development of any sector of economy, including the financial market. Namely its presence makes financial organizations to fight for the client, to offer the best conditions of cooperation to business entities and citizens. It helps to reduce the costs and increase the availability of credit resources. The competitive environment has a beneficial effect on the state of the market only when the participants of the market comply with the established rules and standards of conduct and do not violate the principles of fair competition. The article deals with the problems of competition in the market of banking services in the Russian Federation, which have a direct impact on the socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The author proposes the measures, aimed to combat illegal players.

Effective implementation of tax policy in Russia, ensuring financial stability of its regions, is impossible without reforming the fiscal system and inter-budgetary relations on the basis of a fundamentally new model of their organization. Studies of the recent years have shown that local governments have better opportunities for optimal budget funds’ allocation than central governments. Public authorities should intervene in the solution of social and economic problems of the regions only when local public or local administrative structures are unable to realize this task. The article formulates the basic principles and criteria for the distribution of taxes between the levels of the budget system on the basis of the principle of subsidiary. The paper proves that the introduction of fiscal decentralization policy in Russia should become an effective factor of countering external challenges, stabilizing the socio-economic situation and the country’s exit from the situation of financial instability.

Regional development policy and the regulation of the spatial structure of the Russian economy at present are characterized with a set of new phenomena. In particular, more and more is evident the necessity of new approaches and new tools, aimed to solve the problem of positive economic equalization of the subjects of the Federation. The traditional tools of solving this problem, mainly focused on the massive “infusion” of funds in the economically lagging regions, especially in the form of budget grants, evidently didn’t justify themselves and didn’t provide any real overcoming of interregional differentiation. A significant effect in the solution of this strategic task can be achieved only on the basis of the typification of the subjects of the Russian Federation within the framework of the federal regional development policy, as well as via the shifting this policy focus to the formation of conditions and incentives for the “self-development” of the Russian regions. Still remains as an important task the continuation of the course towards the decentralization of the governance, which should be organically linked with a whole strategy for reforming economic and legal foundations of Russian federalism and, above all, with a clearer understanding of the principle of symmetry of federal relations.

In recent years, there have been evident signs of the intensification of innovative activity in the economy of Russia. Innovative policies of the state combine a strategy of active intervention with decentralized regulation. The federal structure of Russia creates a priority for the development of innovations at the regional level. The high degree of differentiation of social and economic development of Russian regions reduces the effectiveness of the national innovation policy. There is a need to develop territorial subsystems of the national innovation system, including urban agglomerations. The agglomeration territories create an additional effect due to the growth and spread of economic activity beyond the boundaries of cities. The factors of the innovative development of the agglomeration are: strengthening the interaction of market entities, the development of innovation infrastructure, information technology, distribution and logistic systems. Under the influence of these factors occurs a diffusion of innovations which spreads in the economic space of the agglomeration area. The innovative development of agglomeration is ultimately carried out by enterprises, which generate ideas and embody them in production. In modern conditions, Russian companies demonstrate financial difficulties and a low level of investment activity. Despite this fact, the formation of prerequisites for innovative growth takes place due to the improvement of macroeconomic parameters, determining the investment attractiveness of the Russian economy.

Specialists have developed a series of indices in order to determine the degree of achieve- ment of «The Goals Sustainable Development» aimed at improving the social well-being of the world community. Despite all advantages of these indices, their application for the regions of Russia meets a number of difficulties, the main of which is the inaccessibility of information necessary for their calculation. Presented in the article system of indicators of social adversity in Russia and in the countries world-wide for 2000—2015 proves their significant impact on the human development level. Statistical analysis of the indicators of social adversity in the regions of Russia showed their significant heterogeneity. In order to identify similar regions in the structure of these indicators, in the study was undertaken clusters’ formation for the averaged over the period of 2000—2015 values of the character- istics under consideration. According to the results of the study, the regions were divided into three homogeneous groups, which are significantly different. The developed classification makes it possible to pursue actions towards increasing the social well-being in accordance with the specifics of each group of regions. In order to carry out a comparative analysis of the countries of the world community and regions of Russia in terms of social well-being, a general index is proposed, which can be used both as a separate indicator of the social well-being and as one of the components of the human development index together with the demographic, economic and educational components.

The article presents the main approaches to the concept of “economic potential of population” and evaluates economic potential of the population of Perm region in comparison with other regions of Russia. The author analyzes the indicators, characterizing the standard of living of the population, unemployment, economic development of the region, complex indicator “human development index” (HDI). The paper reveals the readiness of young people to participate entrepreneurial activity. The paper shows that this readiness is still very low, as well as the indicators of small business development in the region are not high enough. The article proves that in order to increase the opportunities for the development of the economic potential of population of Russian regions (including Perm region), as well as for the development of small business, a greater economic independence of the regions is necessary. This goal can be achieved only within the framework of the consistent federal regional policy.

During the next 10 years, it’s not expected the formation of the universal and comprehensive system of trade and economic relations in Asia-pacific region. Moreover, at present it’s observed the presence of several main economic initiatives and strategies, applying for the role of the economic driver of the region. Among them - China’s initiative “Belt and Road”, Comprehensive Regional Economic Partnership and so on. Of important influence on the economic architecture of the Asia-Pacific region was the US withdrawal from the Trans- Pacific Partnership and the reorientation of Washington towards the conclusion of bilateral trade agreements. The authors illustrate the fragmentation of the Asia-Pacific region from the point of view of security institutions, universal for the Asian region, and the impossibility of their formation in the short-term and medium-term perspective. The article is devoted to the study and forecasting of socio-economic and political processes in the Asia-Pacific region.

The article examines the main institutional changes, which took place in the world economy and in international economic relations after the Second World War in the framework of four periods. These periods include the creation of the Bretton Woods agreements and GATT, which played an unusually positive role as a universal regulator of world trade within well-known trade rounds. The paper reviews the periods of unusually successful development of two subsystems of the world economy (socialist and capitalist) and their positive mutual influence (the latent development of convergence). Moreover, the author argues that the most successful period for world capitalism was the time, when on the basis of Keynesian regulation, a social state of universal prosperity has been created, poverty quickly declined and the middle class grew on the basis of a continuous rise of the standard of living for the majority of the population of the countries. This model of democratic capitalism was rigidly and uncompromisingly changed in the 1980s through the rejection of Keynesianism in favour of neo-liberal monetarism or «libertarianism», as the famous American economist P. Samuelson mentioned in the well-known doctrine of «Washington Consensus». The latter reflects the course of the most right-wing reactionary circles of large monopolistic corporations and, above all, of financial groups, which established control over national economies, especially successfully after the fall of the USSR and the world socialist system. Global competition between the two systems has disappeared; world capitalism has announced that there is no alternative. Hence — the sources of the rapid growth of inequality, a new onset of poverty, the tendency towards the reduction of the middle classes in the countries; including in the most prosperous and wealthy ones. Proclaiming the slogans of the «withdrawal of the state from the economy» in order to stimulate the mechanism of competition in the developed countries for the past three decades, state intervention has increased and in the direct forms and with growing intensity. This fact became especially noticeable from the beginning of a new millennium and in particular when the joint efforts of the United States and the European Union actually blocked the activities of the WTO as a universal regulator of international trade. The transition to a policy of pressure, blackmail, threats, unilateral introduction of duties, quotas and sanctions became Washington’s distinctive feature and style, especially after the coming of President Donald Trump to the White House. All this, to the author’s opinion, creates a new, much more complicated international situation for Russia, requires the necessity to conduct another economic policy of the country and another course of its foreign policy, including with colleagues in the EEU. It’s necessary to give new incentives for the development of not only the Russian economy, but also of the economy of this integration group, which is vitally important for the interests of Russia itself and for the countries of the group. This course should become a priority in the entire foreign economic strategy of the state.

Numerous innovations, introduced into the financial sphere with the help of new digital technologies, can be used both for the solving local problems of regions’ development and for solving global financial problems. In this regard, the financial digitalization of the domestic economy should go along the path of creating the necessary infrastructure, which facilitates the attraction of private investments in regions and forming favourable environment for the international trade. Kraudfanding platforms, focused at the funds’ collection for companies and individuals in order to implement investment projects, will gradually replace microfinance organizations. The advantages of the blockchain technology will eliminate the disadvantages of rating systems for the evaluation of digital projects. The crypto-currencies market will make it possible to overcome the sanctions’ restrictions of international trade through the US dollar.

The inflow of internal migrants, representatives of «visible minorities», into the Russian regions leads to tensions between local population and those migrants, especially from the North Caucasus. Domestic migrants are Russian citizens, but often they are poorly integrated into local communities. The author analyzes the factors and the level of integration of internal migrants in various regions of Russia. The paper shows that the level of integration of migrants depends on the state of interethnic relations as they are perceived by local population and migrants. The dependence has been revealed of the migrants’ integration on the consolidation of the local community and its benevolence. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the integration of local residents in local communities. It’s shown that the levels of integration of migrants and non-migrants into the local community are closely interrelated. Where local communities are better integrated, the integration of migrants is more successful: a favourable social context creates incentives for the integration of migrants. Particular attention is paid to the structures of identities of local residents and migrants. Migrants adopt the standards of social behaviour of representatives of local communities. The structures of the migrant’s identities are gradually transformed, converging with the structures of the identities of local residents. Integrated migrants are oriented at the best social inclusion patterns of the local population, and non-integrated migrants are guided by the worst asocial behaviour patterns.

One of the basic factors, determining the nature of socio-economic processes in the Russian Federation, is the trends in the development of regional economies. The accounting of their characteristics is mandatory for the developing of the strategy of spatial development of the national economy. However, the solution of this problem meets certain difficulties, caused by the qualitative differences within these trends. The development of regional economies has different speed and direction. In addition, in a number of regions there is stagnation or even «negative» economic growth. In the Russian Federation, these differences are especially «convex» due to both to the factor of objective nature (economic-geographical, natural-climatic, socio-cultural, etc.) and of subjective nature (ambiguity in the goals of regional policy, mistakes in the selection of regional growth factors, etc.). The results of the research, presented in the article, make it possible to characterize the development trends of the economies of the subjects of the Russian Federation from the standpoint of assessing their readiness for modernization, conducting towards organization of manufacturing production with higher value added.

Since 2015, the All-Russian public organization «The Guild of Domestic Buyers and Specialists in Procurement and Sales» has been rating the efficiency and transparency of procurement systems in the regions of Russia. The purpose of the ranking is the evaluation and comparison of the procurement systems of the subjects of the Russian Federation in terms of efficiency and transparency in procurement activities. A distinctive feature of the rating from other existing projects for assessing the procurement activities in the regions is the evaluation of all aspects of purchasing activities. The rating tools provide an opportunity to create analytics, which provide the possibility to undertake managerial decisions to improve the procurement system in the regions of Russia, including the experience of other regions, which have achieved high performance according to the rating. The rating is calculated on the basis of eight indicators for state and municipal procurement separately: assessment of the organizational structure of procurement in the region; assessment of information infrastructure in the region; regulatory framework of the region; assessment of professionalism of customers and the provision of qualified personnel; evaluation of procurement procedures; compliance with the requirements of procurement legislation; execution of contracts; removal of administrative barriers and ensuring the availability of information on the regional public procurement system. The results are summarized for each indicator separately, which makes it possible to identify the strong position of the region in specific areas of procurement. The rating is calculated annually on the basis of the results of the previous financial year. In 2017 (reflecting the results of 2016), 40 regions took part in the rating calculation. In 2018, 46 regions were involved in the ranking on public procurement and 35 units — on municipal procurement. The leaders were determined for each of the nominations.

Far Eastern Federal district is one of the most geographically extensive in the country. It includes 9 subjects of the Russian Federation. It is characterized with convenient geographical location, proximity to rapidly developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region (China, Japan, South Korea); significant reserves of natural resources, presence of natural attractions (volcanoes, valley of geysers, lake Baikal, etc.), which create opportunities for tourism development. The uniqueness of the role, played by the regions of the Far East, is predetermined with a combination of several factors, the most important of which are the significant natural resource potential of the macroregion, the use of which is necessary to ensure sustainable development of Russia for the long term, as well as the importance of the role of the macroregion in ensuring the country’s defense. The solution of economic, social and infrastructure problems of Far East is of paramount importance for preservation and strengthening of the territorial integrity of the country. The development of the macroregion is also one of the necessary conditions for the successful implementation of the Asia-Pacific direction of Russian foreign policy, its geopolitical and foreign economic aspects. However, despite its own potential and the implementation at the federal level of a new model of advanced development of Far East, based on the creation of the territories of advanced socio - economic development, the consistent expansion of the free port of Vladivostok in the various territories of Far East, the introduction of a mechanism, aimed to support investment projects, the comprehensive development of the Kuril Islands of the Sakhalin region, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk territory, “Vostochny” cosmodrome in the Amur region, “Zvezda” shipbuilding complex in the Primorsky region and other facilities, within Far Eastern federal district still remain many highly subsidized subjects of the Russian Federation. Even such potentially powerful regions, as Sakhalin region, need financial assistance from the federal budget.