Opening address of editor-in-chief.

The article examines the phenomenon of BRICS, which has now acquired a global visibility. The article focuses on the main potential of the BRICS countries — human capital, those demographic resources that, being combined with a growing economy and a standard of living, can break the current picture of the world.

The article examines the structure of the US public debt, makes comparative analysis of the periods of the US national debt sharp increase and intensification of the economic domination policy. It is proved that national debt is an instrument organically introduced into the economic mechanism of the US economy, which contributes to maintaining social stability in society. When examining the components of the US public debt, attention is paid to the social component, including medical care, pensions and migration burden on the US budget, as well as to role of fiscal policy in the development of the US national economy. It is revealed that the structure of the US national economy, despite the trends of the economic policy changes announced by the president, remains unchanged, inertial growth, practically not associated with the activities of the new US administration, continues. Attention is drawn to foreign counterparties, holders of US securities, including Russia. The article considers the possibility for the US Congress to raise the national debt ceiling as an instrument of internal political opposition to the current administration of the US president and the presidential policy. In case of significant delay in raising the national debt ceiling by the US Congress, which will also become a factor in strengthening sanctions pressure on Russia, our country can incur real losses.

Authors propose a new idea of the economic theory construction as a more systematic and reasonable. The authors divide the economics into five levels: nanoeconomics, microeconomics, mezoeconomics, macroeconomics and megaeconomics. Nanoeconomics is considered as economics of intellectual capital, intellectual property and innovations. Nanoeconomics is the systemic basis for all other economics, ensuing from it by meaning and substance. In the article there is noted the increasing significance of legal factor in modern economic theory and practice and, in particular, the IP law importance.

Sanctions against Russia adopted in the summer of 2017 will result in aggravation of long-term foreign exchange funding for the Russian economy, in an increase of short-term financial resources in the market and intensification of the speculative nature of Russia’s financial market. The article considers some of the possible measures that Russian regulators and businesses need to take in order to ensure market stability and minimize the negative effects of sanctions for themselves.

The paper analyzes the international and Russian practice of stressed banks rehabilitation, which is realized in two main forms — big banks forced resolution and voluntary recovery of insolvent, but revivable banks. On the insight ground of dynamics and structure of the Russian top-5 banks liabilities and capital the paper shows that in continued credit shrinkage conditions, the Russian banking sector restructuring is possible only through voluntary recovery arrangement. Conversely, forced, but preventive rehabilitation would perceived by markets as a signal of bank’s soon insolvent, and this can become a trigger of the lenders outflow and provokes the compression of banking sector credit portfolio.

The relevance of the study is based on the need to minimize the damage caused by the sanctions imposed on the country’s economy and to provide the economic growth of economic entities in this context. The purpose of the article is to develop a set of theoretical and methodological approaches to efficient implementation of import substitution programs in the radio electronic industry in the long run. Leading methods in studying this problem were the methods of factors analysis, organizational modeling, system analysis, innovation theory and enterprise economics, which allowed to reveal key contradictions of state policy in the sphere of import substitution in the radio electronic industry. As a result of the study, the original system of criteria was developed, as well as the fundamental management model taking into account the domestic economy’s ability to implement systematic management of competitive import substitution. Materials of the article can be useful for developing new and improving existing methods of regulating relations that arise between entities carrying out activities in the sphere of import substitution, as well as between organizations that are part of the infrastructure supporting the above activity, and public authorities when forming and implementing the corresponding industrial policy.

The article is dedicated to consideration of the post-industrial armed conflict in the light of the non-digital world concept. It is shown that technological essence of the post-industrial war represents evolution management for military purposes. A memory cell model of dynamic self-awareness as an elementary “brick” of evolution is proposed. A logical operation — addition of memory cells, which creates a continuous cellular structure of the self-awareness memory, — is proposed. The article describes the method for solving the problem of controlled creation of the alive from the inanimate as a R&D direction in creating an artificial consciousness capable of self-evolution for the purposes of developing new types of autonomous weapons, reconnaissance systems, combat planning and control with psychic properties superior to the human psychic properties.

The article analyzes three systemic fears, the origin of which is not connected with a person, but the basis for which is provided by the Universe: falling of celestial bodies on the surface of the planet and possible destruction of any civilizational activity, change in the temperature regime of the atmosphere with subsequent cataclysms. And if these two cosmic fears are synoptic, they can be observed and, according to the author, were relevant at the end of the 20th century, the third fear of life existence on other planets is being written by science fiction writers, which now are joined by astrophysicists. As a consequence, any danger brings forth economy of security, and we can assume what prospects the expected markets of space security open.

The President of the Institute of the Middle East, Yevgeny Satanovsky, is a public figure. An authoritative orientalist, analyst, specialist in international relations, he often appears in the most popular political programs. However, our conversation is not about politics, but about science, which, as it turned out, is an important part of Yevgeny Yanovich’s life. Our interlocutor asserts: to live in a society and to be free from an understanding of its laws is like putting a finger into a socket.