In modern humanitarian studies and research in a number of social sciences, interpretation of visual data is often used. However, in some cases, it is able to make a negative adjustment in the methodology and research methods, which is a consequence of the terminological and theoretical underdevelopment of the theory of visuality itself, including within the framework of political science. The development of a general visual paradigm is currently in its infancy and is being carried out through the formation of the corresponding categorical apparatus, adequate to the real processes that it signifies.In political science studies, the theory of visibility is an innovation, since they lack the basic conceptual principles of the theory of visual political communication, which are not in demand due to the textual orientation of political science, which has for a long time linguistic-political bias, obscuring the whole complex of images in politics. However, the transformation of existing formats of rapidly developing political communication processes and technologies in the modern information society and the creation of new ones is carried out in the direction of increasing the amount of visual information that not only complements verbal forms, but also dominates the processes of political practices. The communication processes that ensure the functioning of political institutions are, in most situations, visually attributed and focused not so much on speech and audio as on visual techniques, which suggests that they are the main tool of political communication and a means of constituting political reality.

As a result of almost three decades of economic, administrative and public administration reforms in the Russian Federation, as well as features of the economic development of Russia as a federal state during this period, a situation developed when, on the one hand, the Russian Federation was able to accumulate sufficient investment funds, and, on the other hand, provided the business community with the opportunity to invest in the Russian economy.However, the effectiveness of the socio-economic development of the country as a whole, directly depends on the level of its socio-economic regions. Scientific, technological and economic breakthrough is possible only if the subjects of theRussian Federationactivate their resources. Meanwhile, as the current practice of political and public administration inRussiashows, it is necessary to create specialized development institutions at the regional level. At the federal level, these issues have practically been resolved. At the regional level, there are still quite a lot of barriers, which in the framework of this article are designated as political and economic barriers.

The world order of the 21st century is characterized by transformational processes changing the spatial-temporal coordinates of international life. The features of the present stage are ambivalent processes (integration and disintegration; globalization and deglobalization).The article analyzes the transformation processes in post-Soviet space. The relevance of the study is caused by the presence of several frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet space that have changed the configuration of the region and have been enhancing its conflict potential since they are far from settling and constructive resolution. The conflict potential of the post-Soviet space is increased because of the presence of new state formations: the unrecognized de facto states thePridnestrovianMoldavianRepublicand theNagorno-KarabakhRepublic, and partially recognized Abkhazia andSouth Ossetia.The article also deals with the statehood acquisition and the formation of a new status of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, theNagorno-KarabakhRepublicand Transnistria. It emphasizes the necessity to solve the problem of obtaining external legitimization of the sovereignty of these political-territorial entities not only within the legal framework, but also within the political and social sphere.The actualization of frozen conflicts is only a matter of time, and in the context of the deterioration of relations between global players pursuing their own interests in the region, it can be used as an argument for aggravating the international situation.The principal approach to the study of this problem is the combination of comparative historical, institutional and situational methods that allow us to comprehensively consider the forms of international legitimization of small states in contemporary international relations and analyze conflict situations.The article presents various theoretical concepts on the problem of unrecognized states; the possibilities of further development of these partially recognized states are discussed. The difficulties of political integration and the difficulties of resolving frozen conflicts, in particular, due to the lack of a full-fledged dialogue between all parties to the conflict, are highlighted.The article is valuable as an analytical material for practical use by agencies and organizations involved in the development of political content in theSouth Caucasusregion.The authors conclude that in the issue of the existence of unrecognized States of the post-Soviet space, the time factor is essential because in these territories new generations of people are born who perceive themselves as full-fledged citizens of sovereign States.

The need to study the experience of political modernization in Kazakhstan is determined by the fact that the modern Russian Federation largely exhausted the inertial potential of the 1990s, trying to build a model of political modernization, which took into account the national (Russian), world (Western) and regional experience of political and social reforms.The aim of the study was to identify the features of political modernization in Kazakhstan. Based on this goal the following tasks were solved:• to define theoretical and methodological aspects of political modernization;• to identify the features of the study of political modernization in modern political science;• to study the basic concepts of political modernization and features of modernization processes in posttraditional societies.To implement the above goals and solve problems were used methods of discourse analysis. That is why the theoretical and methodological basis of the work is based on the methods developed in the framework of studies of political modernization.

In such country as Israel with its high industrialization and urbanization rates the environment protection is of key importance for preserving the biodiversity of nature. Awareness of the need to protect precious natural resources and landscapes of Israel forced to pass numerous laws on protection of nature and wild animals. These laws provide legal basis for protection of environment, natural resources, wild animals, unique nature features and places being of scientific and educational value in this country.Israel locates at the juncture of three continents combining different climatic and botanical regions which have led to appearance of the unique, by diversity and composition, plant and animal world. In Israel you can find 2800 plant varieties (of which 150 are endemics), 8 species of amphibia, 80 species of reptiles, 450 species of birds and 70 species of mammals. For protection of natural biodiversity there were established 224 nature preserves and 203 and historical heritage deserves special mention.In the recent years the governmental and public organizations have focused on development of the programs on environment management for monitoring and ensuring the required quality of water and air and for processing and utilization of solid wastes.Quite spectacular achievements are observed in reintroduction of predatory and bible species, protection of sea turtles, impoundment of the Hula valley and preservation of migratory birds. The government’s initiatives were welcomed by the public that joined in national parks which cover around 23% of the territory of Israel. The nature preserves and national parks represent the whole range of the natural heritage of Israel: Mediterranean forests, coastal and water landscapes, sand dunes, desert and crater landscapes and oases, while the unique archeological these activities. The environmental education, awareness and activities of the society have increased enormously which is proved by the growing number of nongovernmental environmental organizations — from a few in the 1990s to over one hundred nowadays. The greater attention is paid to collection and publication of environmental data.

Until lately economic relations of Caspian littoral states were mainly developed on bilateral basis. Level of five-lateral cooperation evidently because of various reasons didn’t matchthe intensity in political dialogue and dynamics of communication in different other segments.Focus on oil and gas sector and aspiration for separation were dominating. Still possible formatsof All-Caspian interaction have been discussed since the Second Caspian Summit 2007. Whileexperience of successful co-working and mutual trust were growing, with new priorities in economic development set (first of all - transport and infrastructure) the Caspian Littoral States started seeking for a suitable common platform. A new chapter for the “Caspian Five” in this segmentwas open with the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea signed at the highest levelin August 2018, as well as intergovermental Agreements on cooperation in trade, economic andtransport fields. Decision to organize the first Caspian Economic Forum in Turkmenistan on August, 12 this year under participation of governments’ members and business delegations of thelittoral states is significant. Cooperation in this format can bring a good synergy.

The United Kingdom is set to officially leave the EU on 29 March 2019. However, London still doesn’t have a common strategy at the talks with Brussels, as well as a vision of an independent future of the country after the divorce. Amid this uncertainty, differences over the conditions of Brexit are currently on the rise both in the British society and the establishment. There is a significant increase in the number of people who are not satisfied with the Cabinet both in the opposition and among the Conservatives themselves, which undoubtedly threatens the governmental plan — Chequers. Die-hard eurosceptics, including former members of the Cabinet B. Johnson and D. Davis, urge not to make concessions to Brussels and to ensure autonomy of the UK in trade while maintaining the status quo on the Irish border. Those who are interested in business development support the idea of “soft Brexit” in order to keep getting benefits from access to the European free market. Moreover, some pro-European members of Parliament are still hoping to conduct another referendum. No progress is expected as a result of talks between the Secretary of State for exiting the EU Dominic Raab and his European counterpart Michel Barnier: Brussels continues to insist on creating a special economic zone in Northern Ireland without a hard border, which makes London fear possible alienation and another referendum. Regardless of the result of Brexit talks, internal political divisions will be increasing, jeopardizing Theresa May’s weak position as the Prime Minister and the leader of the Conservative Party. In an attempt to draw attention away from the negative consequences of Brexit in such a tense political situation, the British Prime Minister engages in multiple foreign-policy ventures, primarily anti-Russian rhetoric in the context of Syria, Ukraine and the Salisbury case. As a result, the UK has a destabilizing impact on world politics.

The land reform affected all the countries of the post-Soviet space and in the number of cases led to land degradation, as indicated in scientific literature and in the state reports. The paper presents the results of applying the modern international methodology for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) assessment for the Russian Federation. The tools of this methodology makes it possible to trace, on a retrospective basis, the dynamics of land degradation using following proxy indicators: land cover, land productivity and soil organic carbon stocks. The relevant data for 2000-2015 are provided in the paper. It is shown that, despite the convenience and relative simplicity of the international methodology, as well as the possibility for comparative analysis of the state of land for the entire territory of the country according to a unified methodology, nevertheless it can not be used as alternative methods through direct substitutions of the global LDN indicators to national counterparts. The main reasons for the contradictions revealed are the variety of socio-economic and socio-economic conditions, as well as the existing multi-level state system for land monitoring and assessment, which is traditional and conservative. To harmonizing national and global data it is proposed to enhance the national land monitoring system with global indicators for using them in the national land assessment system to monitor and verify the accuracy of statistical data obtained by traditional methods. In this case, global LDN indicators can be used in state and sectoral statistics to analyze general trends and stimulate the LDN targeting at the national and local level. The method for LDN calculation allows comparing poorly compared land categories by degradation indicators, although it will require substantial refinement for use in the Russian Federation.