Vol 6, No 2 (2023)

The article presents the materials of the All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference “The 7th Senchagov Readings” on the topic “Russia’s economic security: responding to new challenge” for scientists, specialists, academic staff and postgraduates, held in Moscow on March 23-24, 2023 in full-time and ZOOM format on the basis of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences with organizational and scientific participation of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, V.Ya. Kikot' Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federatio, St. Petersburg State University of Economics, Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after R.E. Alekseev, Section of Problems of Macroeconomics and Social Market Economy of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the Journal "Economic Security".The main directions of the forum discussion are highlighted. The resolution of the All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference is presented. The theoretical positions of the participants characterizing the directions of modern sanctions pressure on the Russian economy are reflected. The methods of countering monetary, financial, trade, economic, social and other measures of forceful pressure on the domestic national market are outlined. Promising areas of research in the field of economic security and the development of anti-sanctions policy are announced. Funding:The article was prepared following the results of the All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference “The 7th Senchagov Readings” on the topic “Russia’s economic security: responding to new challenge”.The article has been prepared in accordance with the topic of the state task Reg. No. RD 121030500096-5; Reg. No. IKRBS "New challenges and threats to socio-economic security: measures of budgetary and financial regulation".

The purpose of the article was to study the impact of Western sanctions on Russia's economic security and to develop recommendations for countering these sanctions. The essence of sanctions is revealed. The characteristic of the sanctions policy of the West in the period 2012-2022 is given. The most significant directions of sanctions pressure from the point of view of damage have been identified. The characteristic of Russia's response to sanctions is given. The sanctions did not ensure the achievement of the political and economic goals of their initiators. The Russian economy turned out to be quite stress-resistant. The rate of its slowdown and the inflation rate turned out to be significantly lower than predicted by foreign and domestic experts. At the same time, the sanctions have exacerbated the existing problems of the Russian economy. They are as follows: irrational structure, dependence on the export of raw materials and technology imports, insufficient diversification of commodity exports, capital exports, etc. The conclusion about the long-term nature of sanctions is made. Recommendations for developing the real sector at the expense of internal sources of investment are given.

Today, the field of challenges for the reproduction of national human potential is expanding, many of which lie in the sphere of labor. They make themselves felt not only at the level of macroeconomic proportions, but also at the micro level, characterizing the situation in the sphere of labor from the point of view of individuals or certain segments of the population. The article discusses the possibilities of applying the concept of socio-economic security of workers, developed by the International Labor Organization, to the study of the micro-level of the system of challenges in the world of work, which have emerged at the present stage of development of the economy and society. The advantage of this approach that it focuses on identifying vulnerabilities and problems faced by the majority of the working population not just the poorest. Seven aspects singled out that comprehensively characterize the socio-economic security of workers based on a combination of sociological and factual indicators. The study showed that currently available information on the state and dynamics of the social and economic security of workers is fragmentary and allows, to one degree or another, to assess only a part of these key aspects. It established that over the past year, in the changed economic realities, there has been an increase in the stability of the position of workers in terms of guarantees of employment and retention of employment. At the same time, the aspect of socio-economic security associated with the preservation and development of the professional and qualification potential of the working population continues to be among the most vulnerable. Ambiguous changes are taking place in the aspect of labor safety. To quickly identify vulnerable areas that require investment and measures to support the economically active population, it advisable to revive the monitoring of socio-economic security in the labor sphere.The article was prepared as part of participation in the International Scientific and Practical Conference «VII Senchagov Readings» on the topic: «The economic security of Russia: a response to new challenges», Moscow: Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, March 23-24, 2023.

In this paper, special attention paid to the leading position of the gas industry in the system of economic and energy security of Russia. The system-forming role of the gas industry for the Russian economy considered the main problems of the gas sector and its development trends identified in order to increase the competitiveness of the domestic fuel and energy complex and develop the gas market. Based on the results of the study, conclusions drawn about the instability of export prices for natural gas and the tendency to increase the volatility of natural gas exports over previous years, with a relatively stable domestic consumption of "blue fuel" at the level of 2% of Russia's GDP. The volume of natural gas exports to the FSU countries in 2015-2021 tended to decrease with the growth of demand in non-CIS countries, at the same time, the average gas sales price for the FSU countries turned out to be less volatile with the non-stationarity of average gas sales prices from Russia to other countries. Thus, the gas industry for Russia not only of strategic importance, the creation of a single gas market between the Russian Federation and the FSU countries a priority at the present stage in order to increase the protection of the Russian economy from internal and external threats, which will also ensure a stable demand for gas in the participating countries regional natural gas market, followed by an increase in natural gas consumption and a reorientation of Russian gas exports towards more stable and reliable supplies.

The article discusses approaches to assessing the regional economic security, including food security indicators. A variant of grouping indicators is proposed. It is is a projection of indicators from the national level to the regional one. The analysis of regional economic security indicators of the Volga Federal District for the period from 2006 to 2021 was carried out. As the main evaluation method, the ranking method was chosen. Despite the different typical affiliation of regions during the study period, all subjects of the Russian Federation are characterized by significant changes in food security indicators; and there are no clear growth or decline trends in dynamics. First of all, this is explained by the influence of objective negative impacts – climatic conditions. Indicators characterizing other groups of economic security show clearer trends of decline or growth associated with crisis phenomena. Therefore, it was concluded that food security is one of the most vulnerable and at the same time the most important factor in ensuring the economic security of the region.

Today, the project management methodology is one of the key management tools. The project approach is widely used not only in the activities of enterprises and corporations, but also in public administration to improve the quality of life. The authors of the article consider the monitoring procedure as the most important stage of monitoring the national priority projects' effectiveness. The necessity of monitoring procedures as an element of ensuring the economic security of individual regions and the country as a whole is substantiated. The monitoring procedure makes it possible to determine the expediency of spending funds, track the directions of their use, identify inappropriate expenditures, thereby preventing the incorrect use of funds allocated for national projects, contributing to improving the effectiveness of national projects at the regional and federal levels. On the example of the Safe High-quality Roads National Project, the indicators of national projects are considered. The procedure for comparing these indicators with target values as a monitoring tool is shown. Reasonable conclusions on the directions of improving the implementation of national projects based on monitoring are presented.

The article is devoted to the applied technologies of controlled chaos as a new type of information weapon of mass destruction, created to destroy states in order to further integrate into the «new world order». The main emphasis is on the mechanisms used to destroy the subjectivity of the country´s development. An analysis made of the technologies of «controlled chaos» applied both to the Russian Federation and other states of the post-Soviet space, the results of which should be the destruction of statehood and the loss of the possibility of independent development.

Inequality of Russian citizens is one of the threats to economic security. Since the 1990s, no significant progress has been made in reducing inequality in Russia. The Gini coefficient for income inequality consistently exceeds 0.4, and it reaches 0.9 for inequality in the distribution of wealth. The results of a sociological survey conducted in the summer of 2022 show that Russians perceive income inequality to be weaker than it actually is. Within the framework of the consumption economy, the inequality of citizens' consumption is most pronounced. In 2021, the final consumption expenses of the tenth decile group (55.3 thousand rubles) exceeded the expenses of the first group (6.9 thousand rubles) by 8 times, while it is important that the marginal propensity to consume among the poor is higher than among the rich. Indirect taxation in Russia has no effect on smoothing the citizens' inequality. The potential of VAT rates' differentiation in reducing inequality has not been realized. Proposals to improve VAT to smooth out consumption inequality in order to ensure the economic security of the state have been formed. Funding. The article was prepared with the financial support of the grant of the President of the Russian Federation for young Russian scientists No. MK-2397.2022.2.

The quality of socio-economic development of both regions and Russia as a whole depends on many factors, including:– increase in own incomes of subjects;– improvement of the mechanism of interaction between federal authorities, regional authorities, local governments.Some of the strategic goals for the development of regions are identical, but under certain circumstances and conditions they drastic differences. The article describes an actual academic discussion that touches upon the issues of sustainable development of regions by means of changes in a number of areas, such as how to improve the mechanism of interconnection of the federal center with the constituent entities of the Russian Federation for the purposes of socio-economic development; economic inequality as a deterrent to socio-economic development; problems of achievement of target indicators of «national projects».The interrelation of these issues with the sustainable development of Russian regions shown and analyzed, and deterrent factors that increase over time identified. The ways of their solution are determined.

The authors study the driving forces of the anti-Russian coalition in the aspect of modern international security. The countries of the anti-Russian coalition have been systematized. The analysis of the key provisions set out in the national security strategies of the USA, China, Russia and the EU is carried out. The actions of the anti-Russian coalition, manifested in the context of unprecedented sanctions against Russia and their consequences for international security, are revealed. The sanctions measures against Russia for the period from February 23, 2022 to February 25, 2023 are analyzed. Their main trends have been identified.Under the circumstances, Russia is invited to actively interact with countries whose economic entities may suffer in the event of a greater expansion of the extraterritorial scope of anti-Russian sanctions.Russia should also develop promising relations with the EAEU and BRICS.Our country needs to challenge economic sanctions at the level of the UN Security Council from the point of view of a key component of diplomatic counteraction to sanctions pressure.The sanctions directed against our state have proved ineffective in terms of the impact of restrictive measures used as a foreign policy tool, since they have not changed Russia's political course. However, global integration has expanded the possibilities of spreading sanctions shocks to international security.

Currently, business in the Russian Federation faces serious economic risks, especially in the current conditions of an ever-increasing economic blockade by Western countries. The article deals with the problems of economic security of an company engaged in foreign economic activity. The development of a system of measures to ensure comprehensive support for such companies is analyzed. This article is of a scientific and applied nature. It can be a guide for companies in the field of ensuring economic security, increasing their financial sustainability in foreign economic activity amidst international economic sanctions and the parallel import policy in the Russian Federation, which is an integral part of the import substitution program and support for Russian export companies.