This essay aims at taking reflection on the civil society. The author tries to prove the validity of the thesis that civil society is a precondition for stable development of democracy. For this purpose, author invokes the Polish and foreign studies and sources of public opinion surveys, referring mainly to the example of Poland. Atthe beginning terms such as civil society and stable democracy are explained. Then the arguments are given and critical private opinions of the author. They confirm this thesis. There is no shortage of the scientific data and references to personal experiences of the author, which is professionally associated with many non-governmental organizations for several years. This texts aim is to deepen the theme of the development of civil society and encourage the substantive discussion of the condition of contemporary democracy in Poland.

In its 90 years of modern existence, Turkish foreign relations with Russia reflect contentious issues with which the two republics have grappled during the twentieth century and following the collapse of great empires, civil wars and radical changes in the international political system. Moreover, it is safe to say that the degree of constructiveness of these relations is directly dependent upon macropolitical processes in Eurasia, and that the success of foreign political contacts reflects the level of political and cultural thinking of state elites in both countries. One of the most important directions of Russian–Turkish bilateral relations is inter-regional cooperation on the subject of the Russian Federation and Turkey. This paper analyzes the main directions and pace of economic cooperation development between Turkey and Russia’s constituent entities, and evaluates the prospects of these relations.

This article is devoted to the analysis of integration and disintegration processes that occurred between Belarus and Russia after the signing the 1996 Treaty establishing the Community of the two countries. Particular attention is paid to the state of relations in 2014-2015 – after the beginning of the military conflict in Ukraine and the economic crisis in Belarus and Russia. The author points to several trends on three levels of cooperation. Politically, the countries disintegrate, as they become aware of the difference between their interests in bilateral relations and on the international arena. Economic cooperation remains at a high level, but deep integration is impossible, as the economic crisis forced Belarus to seek opportunities for economic development elsewhere. Military cooperation, in turn, reaches the limit of integration that Minsk is willing to accept: its manifestation was a refusal of Belarus to place a Russian military base on its territory. Moreover, Belarus has taken several steps to reduce its military dependence on Russia. Thus, the dynamics of the Belarusian-Russian relations allows to say that in the near future the country will continue formal integration, while in practice that means maintaining the “status quo” or even further disintegration.

The purpose of this article is to verify the correctness, actuality and purposefulness of the ‘Novorossia’ concept in relation to Ukraine. The author presents ethnical, historical and electoral processes in Ukraine in the context of development of the idea and concept of Novorossia, he rebuts the concept of Novorossia as both ethnically and electorally inadequate to meet political realities in Ukraine.

The article presents the latest trends in the electoral legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which has passed successive evolutionary way of formation and development since independence. It is carried out a planned systematic work on improvement of electoral legislation in view of own national experience in conducting democratic elections and a referendum.

The adoption of new norms of electoral laws will contribute to the full implementation of the principle freedom of choice, the further democratization of the electoral system of Uzbekistan, strengthening the principles of openness and transparency of the elections.

Authors in this article present the findings of the second stage of the research project on the leadership and the ethnopolitics in Tatarstan. From the chronological and problematic perspective they analyze the transformation of the model of leadership in the republic. Much attention has been paid to the relationship between the format of leadership of the following presidents and their styles of doing politics. On the basis of the analysis the authors come to the conclusion that ethnocratism, which in Tatatarstan has been an important source of the political leadership of the leader and the local elite, seems to lose its ability to adapt and create and generates more and more dysfunction and pathology. Moderate policy of ethnopolitisation and Islamisation promoted by the leader and ethnoelite, which can be perceived as a major justification for its power in relations with the federal center, is being challenged by many social groups. The evidence of this tendency is inter alia the increase of the inter-ethnic tensions and progressive Islamisation of political life in the republic.

In my article I suggest two models of social participation which can positively influence on the process of building the civil society in Ukraine, especially in the area of local government. I want to consider two types of the participatory budgeting, first comes from Porto Allegre in Brazil and the second one from Lodz in Poland. The first model, 27 years old, is the example of representative democracy and is characterized by hierarchical structure. On the other hand, we have different model which is the representative of participatory democracy without any gradation. In this area of research I’m going to choice the best proposition which fit in the process of political transition on Ukraine.

Kaliningrad is a unique Russian region due to its history and geopolitical location. During the Cold War era it was considered an important Soviet military outpost in the confrontation with the NATO. After collapse of the Soviet Union region found itself in a completely new situation as a Russian enclave in Europe. The new geopolitical situations led to numerous problems. After the Poland and Lithuania joining the UE a new set of problems looms ahead. The regional and central governments tried to found a development strategy for Kaliningrad enclave. Now Kaliningrad is open for international cooperation and has one of the most liberal economic and border regime in Russian Federation. Russian government establish on Kaliningrad region Special Economic Zone to attract foreign investment. However Kaliningrad is still a problem form both partners: Russian Federation and UE.

The article discusses the impact of the Customs Union on the development of migration processes in Kyrgyzstan.

Scientific paradigm changes are frequently accompanied by the reconsideration of central terms and ideas. This article demonstrates how this process is currently underway in Russian anthropological studies [narodovedenie] as part of a broader move away from ethnography to theoretical ethnology. The article also shows lines of succession and divergence between various paradigms currently dominant in Russian anthropology, including primordialism and constructivism, and presents the author’s vision of a definition of “ethnicity”, instruments needed to study ethnicities, the nature of “ethnicity,” the underlying axioms on which ethnicities are conceptualized. An initial attempt has been made in the article to outline the central positions that would provide for a principally new ethnological paradigm by way of a new definition of the phenomenon of ethnicity.