Opening address of editor-in-chief.

On August 12, 2018 in the Kazakh city of Aktau presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan signed the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. This fundamental document creates a new legal regime of the Caspian Sea that meets modern requirements and aims at further intensification of the comprehensive interaction of coastal countries. The Caspian were going to sign this Convention for more than 20 years…

This article contains the results of joint scientific and diplomatic work of the two research groups — from the Chinese and Russian side: under the leadership of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China (RDCY) and Counselor to the President of the Russian Federation. The uniqueness of this publication lies in the fact that a reader has the opportunity to observe the joint work including analysis of the Sino-Russian financial and economic cooperation benefits and “bottlenecks” of scientists, heads of leading institutions and officials in real time and in the process of coordinating the positions of the parties, to understand the complexity of diplomatic work and to assess the importance of agreements and results having been achieved.

The range of theoretical-conceptual and practical questions related to the content of the concept of multipolarity and its ideological interpretation is analyzed; the issue of the necessity of practical realization of the multipolarity ideology propagation at all levels of the educational process, first of all Russia and the countries — Russia’s strategic partners, is being studied; It is argued that the proliferation of the ideology of multipolarity meets the national interests of Russia and its partners, ensuring the progressiveness of development and security excluded in the conditions of the restoration of bipolarity and the arms race.

By the beginning of autumn 2018, the Russian government and business have fixed the status quo — any change in the model (including the contract between the government and big business, concluded 15-20 years ago as a result of “equidistant oligarchs”) is out of question. In business logic, the authority (arbitrator) does not have the right to require too much (compliance with the code of a builder, if not of communism, then of socially acceptable capitalism) or to play along with its own adherents (give contracts to state companies, redistribute assets, etc.). Although in fact this happens “sometimes and somewhere in our country” (in state-owned companies and the public sector), but is considered an exception to the rule of “sterile capitalism”: business on its own (“pay taxes and sleep well”). Analyzing historical options of combining contracts with the people and the elite: in Catherine’s and Peter’s periods, the authors present possible options for the modern combination of contracts between the government and business, as well as with the population: the current neoliberal course, the course towards a social market economy and a forced tough (mobilization) course.

The article analyzes the model of forming an innovative economy in a collaborative system based on the stable links of network partners that carry out collective actions on the basis of a common strategy, common identity and joint commitments in the aspect of forming innovative entrepreneurship in order to select the priority directions for developing science, technology and critical technologies that should be aimed at modernizing the economy in order to increase its competitiveness. It is proved that collaboration multiplies many times the productivity of existing production factors and serves as the main mechanism for balancing economies in the global competition conditions. The article justifies formation of an innovative territorial cluster as an aggregate of agents that establish homogeneous, multilateral and regularly recurring links for the joint use of information and knowledge, exchange of services and acquisition of economic benefits from the position of interaction between representatives of science/education, business and the state in order to promote the growth of innovative entrepreneurship. With successful deployment of joint initiatives, innovative territorial clusters develop the collaboration to such level where a unique network effect of innovative synergies (flow innovations) arises, which ensures the continuous growth of innovative entrepreneurship.

On November 22, the Russian Association of Innovative Development will hold the International Innovation and Industrial Forum “Technological Breakthrough” for the seventh time. The central theme of the forum in 2018 will be “Spatial Development of Russia”. Experts in the sphere of public administration, industry, science, representatives of the business community and public organizations will discuss how to improve the life quality and awaken the regions’ potential in order to achieve sustainable development. Marina Shichkina, General Director of the Russian Association of Innovative Development, and Irina Grishina, Vice-Chairman of the Council for Productive Forces Study of the All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade under the Ministry for Economic Development, RANEPA Principal Research Associate, told about the concept of the upcoming event and about the Strategy of Spatial Development to the “ES” magazine – the information partner of the Forum.

Changing of a conjuncture index of “Economic strategy” (CIES) for the 1st half of 2018 is considered. The contribution of indicators of supply and demand in CIES is estimated. The analysis of industrial production is carried out.

Today, one of the most advanced options for electricity production is the use of nuclear reactors, for which a nuclear power plant near the city of Ostrovets is being built in the Republic of Belarus. The Belarusian NPP is being built with the help of the most advanced technologies: tolerant nuclear fuel, allowing to prevent accidents like Fukushima, the “digital twin” – an information model connected to its physical object in real time during the operational phase. However, the “construction of the century” has got not only supporters, but also opponents both in the country and abroad. What is the basis of such an attitude to the nuclear energy development in Belarus, whether digitalization of the plant will increase its vulnerability, as well as how nuclear safety is ensured in Belarus – all these aspects were discussed in the interview with the “ES” magazine by Olga M. Lugovskaya, Head of the Department for Nuclear and Radiation Safety at the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus.

The article discusses the possibility of forming (based on cryptocurrency principles) a single electronic currency of the EAEU. On the basis of a cryptocurrency approach — e-currency emission — it becomes possible to solve the problems of increasing investments, including to overcome the limited capabilities of national financial institutions in their competition with financial and banking groups — non-residents of the EAEU member states. A cryptocurrency management model allows to solve the problem of rearranging volumes, structure and conditions of emission and turnover of digital financial assets within the EAEU as a kind of bundled package of various types of investment resources based on an integrated cryptocurrency control, mining and ICO (Initial Coin Offering) in conjunction with economic activity and exchange rates of the EAEU Member States. The unified financial system of the EAEU in terms of financial resources amount will be able to withstand the risks of currency and financial collapses due to manipulative games and currency attacks by international speculative groups.