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This policy letter collects elementary economic statistics and provides a very basic look on Russian public finances (i) to inform the reader’s opinion on a possible planning process behind the war against Ukraine and (ii) to discuss prospects of an energy embargo and its capability to affect the stability of the Russian economy.
This is the eighth article in our series Trouble on the Far-Right.
Trouble’s brewing for the European Union – also in Finland, where the next country-wide elections will see several new, EU-hostile nationalist groups attempt to establish themselves on the political map. At the same time, Finnish Fascism is seeking to entrench and normalize itself into a respectable part of the political framework.
With disaffection growing, the time appears to be ripe. As Heikki Hiilamo, professor of social policy in Helsinki University notes, Finland has been particularly hard hit by the most recent economic downturn. The middle and lower classes are seeing their expectations fade into uncertainty, as globalization is bringing new and intangible threats in the form of vanishing jobs. Finland is heading towards increasing social inequality, with the reality of the educated and the employed drifting further apart from “globalization’s losers”. With no self-evident owner in sight, the accumulating political capital is attracting radical nationalist utilizers...
A second Yalta
(2014)
The sixth sanction package of the European Union in the context of the aggression against Ukraine excludes Sberbank, the largest Russian bank, from the SWIFT network. The increasing use of SWIFT as a tool for sanctions stimulates the rollout of alternative payment information systems by the governments of Russia and China. This policy white paper informs about the alternatives at hand, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. Careful reflection about these issues is particularly important, given the call for an “Economic Article 5” tabled for the next NATO meeting. Finally, the white paper highlights the need for institutional reforms, if policymakers decide to return SWIFT to the status of a global public good after the war.
This is the seventh article in our series Trouble on the Far-Right.
While one cannot say that the far right movements and ideologies in Latvia are in a state of flux, the current situation in Europe has prompted some developments that could turn into significant trends in the medium to longer term. In turn, these could have an effect on broader European politics, if left unchecked...
Sympetrum fonscolombii is for the first time reported for Tuva (Tyva Republic, Russia), as found in the UbsuNur Depression. New data are provided on Odonata of the Turan or TuranUyuk Depression of Tuva, including the first record of Somatochlora exuberata in Tuva beyond the Todzha Depression and Coenagrion armatum, C. ecornutum, Aeshna juncea, A. grandis, Somatochlora graeseri and Libellula quadrimaculata for the first time reported for the Turan Depression. New distributional data and comments on Ophiogomphus spinicornis Selys, 1878 are added. Somatochlora alpestris found at Lake Oyskoe is for the first time reported for the southern Krasnoyarskiy Kray.
Part 1, Oleg E. Kosterin and Vladimir I. Solovyev, page 1-43:
Odonata found in mid-summer 2015 and 2016 at the north-westernmost Black Sea Coast of the Caucasus, with the first record of Cordulegaster picta Selys, 1854 in Russian Federation
Abstract: Results are presented of brief odonatological examination of the Black Sea coastal northwesternmost spurs of the Caucasus between Anapa and Gelendzhik (mostly at Kabardinka village), Russia, in late July/early August 2015 and early-mid July 2016. In total, 28 Odonata species were found, including Cordulegaster picta for the first time in Russia. For C. picta and Caliaeschna microstigma, the world’s northernmost records were made. New localities of species rare in this area are reported: one for Coenagrion scitulum and three for Selysiothemis nigra, including their breeding habitat. Numerous migrant individuals of Pantala flavescens were observed in many localities in 2015 but none in 2016. Observations on trophic activity of Aeshna affinis and A. mixta are reported, the former showing predominantly matutinal and vespertinal activity and the latter diurnal activity. Occurrence of the Chalcolestes spp. in the Caucasus is discussed.
Part 2, Oleg E. Kosterin, page 45 - 57:
Calopteryx virgo feminalis subsp. nov., a long known under the same name but hitherto formally nameless subspecies from the Caucasian Black Sea Coast
Abstract: The populations of Calopteryx virgo of the Black Sea Coast of the Caucasus have females with the distal hindwing part darkened and males with the underside of S10 and appendages whitish, They are known for more than a century and deserve a subspecific status but since the name feminalis Bartenev, 1910 proposed to them is unavailable, a new subspecies is formally erected under the same name, Calopteryx virgo feminalis Kosterin subsp. nov., with the following type locality: Russia, Krasnodarskiy Kray, Gelendzhik Municipality, Kabardinka village, the Doob River lowermost reaches, 44°38'26-53'', 37°55'55''-57'58'' E.
Results of a brief examination of the spring aspect of Odonata at the Abrau Peninsula and some nearby localities on 2127th May 2018 are presented. Lestes dryas and Caliaeschna microstigma are reported for the Peninsula for the first time, revealing the world northernmost record of the latter. Some old data of Odonata at Novorossiysk and some recent erroneous data on the Krasnodarskiy Kray are referenced and discussed. The known Odonata fauna of the Abrau Peninsula reaches 38 species.
Results are presented of a brief odonatological examination of the Abrau and Taman' Peninsulas at the northwesternmost Caucasian Black Sea coast in Krasnodarskiy Kray, Russia, on July 2026, 2017. Twenty three species have been observed at the former peninsula and five at the latter. The Odonata records at the Abrau Peninsula are summarised, to include 34 species.
Part 1, Oleg E. Kosterin, page 1-28:
On the Odonata of North Kazakhstan Province. I. First data on Petropavlovsk
Abstract: The fauna of Odonata of the environs of Petropavlovsk, North Kazakhstan, was for the first time examined on two short trips in late June and mid August 2015. Thirty five species were revealed. Coenagrion ecornutum was recorded in Kazakhstan for the first time, Gomphus vulgatissimus the second time and Stylurus flavipes the third time. Range expansion of C. ecornutum is discussed. Comparison is attempted of the known local Odonata faunas of the environs of Petropavlovsk, Omsk and Novosibirsk cities residing at the same latitude in the West Siberian Lowland. The Petropavlovsk fauna is very close to that of Omsk. The earlier published Kazakh records of G. vulgatissimus and S. flavipes are clarified and corrected. Breeding of Aeshna viridis in Ishim River (lacking water soldier) is supposed.
Part 2, Oleg E. Kosterin, page 29-46:
Odonata registered on a short excursion to Kyshtovka District, Novosibirsk Province, Russia
Abstract: During a fourday trip to Kyshotovka District, the most northwestern district of Novosibirsk Province, 21 species of Odonata were recorded. Two significant findings were made: that of Coenagrion ecornutum is most northern in West Siberia, and that of Lestes macrostigma is perhaps the northernmost in its range. The latter species was found over small, shallow, freshwater pools along a roadside. The diversity of this species’ habitats in Siberia in comparison to its uniform habitats at brackish water in Western Europe is discussed.
Odonatological results of a trip across the southern Far East of Russia, from nearly the border of North Korea to Khabarovsk from July 1st to 16th, 2014, are presented. In total, 50 species were recorded, including those with limited presence in Russia, such as Paracercion calamorum, P. hieroglyphicum, P. plagiosum (for this species the 3rd Russian locality is reported), Pseudocopera tokyoensis, Stylurus annulatus (2nd Russian locality), Sinictinogomphus clavatus; Trigomphus citimus, Macromia daimoji (3rd Russian locality), M. manchurica, Deielia phaon, Lyriothemis pachygastra (2nd Russian locality). For S. annulatus, M. manchurica and D. phaon the northernmost known localities in the world are reported. D. phaon, earlier reported from one locality in Russia, have been found in five localities in Primorye and for the first time reported for Khabarovskiy Kray in general and Bol'shekhekhtsirskiy State Nature Reserve in particular. A trend of mutual exclusion of two abundant Shaogomphus postocularis epophthalmus and S. schmidti is supposed: the lowermost Ussuri River / Amur River, respectively. Variation in Paracercion spp. and Macromia amphigena fraenata is discussed.
This dissertation explores the breadth and variation of authoritarian counter-terrorism strategies and their legitimacy-related origins to challenge prevailing assumptions in Terrorism Studies. Research and analysis are conducted in the form of a Structured Focused Comparison of domestic counter-terrorism strategies in two electoral autocracies. The first case is Russia’s domestic engagement against a mix of ethno-separatist and Islamist terrorism emanating from its North Caucasus republics between 1999 and 2018. The second case is China’s engagement vis-à-vis a similar type of terrorism in its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region between 1990 and 2018.
The comparison shows that, contrary to prevailing assumptions, the two strategies differ immensely from one another while containing significant if not predominant non-coercive elements. It further shows that the two strategies are closely related to the two states’ sources and resources of legitimacy, both in their original motivation to tackle the terrorist threat and in the design of counter-terrorism strategies. Drawing on David Beetham’s theory of The Legitimation of Power and on the Comparative Politics, Terrorism Studies and Civil War literatures, the dissertation explores the influence of five sources and (re)sources of legitimacy on the two counter-terrorism strategies: responsiveness, performance legitimacy, ideology, discursive power and co-optation. While governmental discursive power is discarded as a source of variation, findings are significant with respect to the influence of ideology and performance legitimacy. Reliance on ideology or related patterns for legitimation raise vulnerability to terrorism and constrain or facilitate the adoption of communicative and preventive measures that accommodate the grievances of potentially defective or even violently terrorist groups. Performance legitimacy is a key motivator in counter-terrorism and an influence on certain types of counter-terrorism policies. Responsiveness and co-optation are identified as potential sources of variation, based on idiosyncratic concurrence with policy choices.
After five years of the Syrian war, we can recognize “four” conflicting parties on the ground – Assad, ISIS, rebel groups and the Kurds. Each one of these conflicting parties has regional and international backers, who ironically do not agree with each other about whom they are fighting for or against. The Syrian regime is backed by Iran, Russia, Hezbollah and Iraqi militias. ISIS is backed by the flood of global Jihadists from all over the world. Rebel groups are backed by Gulf States, Turkey, Jordan and the US. The Kurds are supported by the US. While in the media, we always say “the Syrian conflict, crisis or war”, I wonder what makes this war that much Syrian. It is rather a war on the land of Syria, in which more than 50% of Syria’s population have been displaced, over 220 thousand have been killed, and many more have been injured or imprisoned. According to Amnesty international, more than 12.8 million Syrian people are in “urgent need of humanitarian assistance”. In addition to this humanitarian catastrophe, most of the Syrian land and infrastructure have been destroyed. So what is that Syrian about the Syrian “war”?...
Tetra-auricupride, ideally AuCu, represents the only species showing the coexistence of Au with an elevated level of Pt, as in the case of a detrital grain studied structurally for the first time, from an ophiolite-associated placer at Bolshoy Khailyk, western Sayans, Russia. We infer that tetra-auricupride can incorporate as much as ~30 mol. % of a “PtCu” component, apparently without significant modification of the unit cell. The unit-cell parameters of platiniferous tetra-auricupride are: a 2.790(1) Å, c 3.641(4) Å, with c/a = 1.305, which are close to those reported for ordered AuCu(I) in the system Au–Cu, and close also to the cell parameters of tetraferroplatinum (PtFe), which both appear to crystallize in the same space group, P4/mmm. These intermetallic compounds and natural alloys are thus isostructural. The closeness of their structures presumably allows Pt to replace Au atoms so readily. The high extent of Cu + Au enrichment is considered to be a reflection of geochemical evolution and buildup in levels of the incompatible Cu and Au with subordinate Pt in a remaining volume of melt at low levels of fO2 and fS2 in the system.