From the chief editor

Director of ITSED RAS

Dear readers,

In the third issue of the journal in 2009 the editor-in-chief’s article addressed some issues related to the first anniversary of the economic crisis. Influence of a “very liberal” 1financial system conducted in the country on a depth of the Russian economy recession was the largest of all the industrialized countries and the BRIC countries2. RF President D.A. Medvedev, in his article “Russia, forward!” dated September 10, 2009 gave a more realistic assessment:

“<...> the global economic crisis has shown: our state of affairs is not in the best. <...> Hence we have the decline in production during the current crisis more than other economies and the outrageous stock market fluctuations. All this proves that we did not do what was necessary in previous years. And not everything was done properly” 3.

The directions of modernization of Russian society, the transfer of the country's economy on the innovation track put forward in this article, were supported by all segments of the population. Unfortunately, the President D.A. Medvedev did not say anything about the mechanism of making and implementing decisions that provide practical steps towards gradual modernization.

A year has passed, but a systematic, comprehensive approach to solving the most urgent issues of our state set in the "manifesto" has not been submitted to the public. This year is associated with a routine of operational decisions of acute local problems: March - the explosions in Moscow; May – the tragedy at the Raspadskaya mine; August – September – thousands of homeless fire victims in Russia and the irresistible rise of food prices; September – PR campaign “Khimki forest”. Finally we never get around to the system implementation of the goals stated in the article “Russia, forward!” Participants of the International Discussion Club “Valday-2010” assessed the changes over the past year in the following way:

“<...> the modernization continues to be rather a slogan than a real political course. There is virtually no real modernization, restructuring and diversification. Oil and gas remain to be the main sources of income. Corruption is not restrained by anything, and innovation is inhibited. And we conclude that this trend can last for 10 – 15 years” 4.

It seems that the situation in the country is developing in this very way. State elite has already drawn into another political cycle – the election of the State Duma deputies and the Russian President. It is therefore likely that in the next 2–3 years the slow process of modernization imi- tation will go on.

One of the main indicators showing the direction of the state’s course to economy modernization is the share of expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP (tab. 1) .

Level and dynamics of expenditures on R&D in the Russian Federation are disappointing against the background of the leading countries; it shows a clear imitation of the struggle for the Russian economy modernization.

One of the most important indicators of the state of Russian society is the dynamics of population estimates of the power vertical, the dynamics of social mood and the level of patience reserve. Measurement of public opinion in the region ⁶ show that the rate of approval of the power vertical has not reached the pre-crisis level and the level of disapproval is much higher than the factual figures in 2008 (tab. 2) .

Country	2000	2007	2008	2009.
Finland	3.35	3.48	3.73	3.91
USA	2.77	2.62	2.76	2.65*
Germany	2.47	2.58	2.63	N/d
France	2.05	2.11	2.02	N/d

Russia 1.05      1.12      1.04     0.98

* Data for the USA are designed for the I half of 2009.

Table 2. Evaluation of activities

A number of social indicators also have negative trends (tab. 3) .

Dynamics of the given figures shows that over the past two years these figures are considerably below the levels reached by mid-2008.

In the ensuing preparations for 2011 – 2012 elections the conflicts between the currents in the political elite are inevitable (as an example – the situation with the mayor of Moscow in September 2010). This struggle will obviously not contribute to the population confidence in the future, and hence will not contribute to and strengthen its confidence in the power hierarchy, the ruling party.

For the government to have a stable confidence of all sections of society, in our opinion, the Russian President, D.A. Medvedev and Prime Minister, the leader of the party “United Russia” V.V. Putin should abandon virtual economy modernization, to move from words to the compulsion to modernization and start this process with the solution of the most acute

Table 3. Evaluation of social state

Percentages to the total number of respondents		Changes rate
8 months 2008	8 months 2010
Normal state, good mood
70.2	61.1	0	.87
Experiencing stress, anger, fear, anguis
22.1	34.8			1.52
It's not so bad and you can live; it’s hard to live, but you can tolerate
81.0	70.7	0	.87
It’s impossible to tolerate our plight
10.9	17.6			1.61
Consumer sentiment index
107.5	85.4	0.79
The share who consider themselves poor and destitute
39.8	46.2			1.16
The share who consider themselves middle class
50.7	42.6	0	.84

problems of Russian society: with removing barriers that block technological innovation and intellectual development based on knowledge economy; with the elimination of a monstrous inequality of the population and the real fight against poverty; with significant reduction of corruption, primarily in federal structures .

The effectiveness of the transition from virtual to real modernization in a year can be evaluated not only by experts of the Valdai Club, but first of all by Russian citizens. And the main criterion for this assessment will be positive or negative changes in the level of public confidence in the vertical of power and state institutions. _j

Dear readers, by tradition, we inform you about the changes that have occurred in the journal during the past period. The editors took into account the wishes to expand the subjects and introduce new sections and expressed by V.V. Ivanter, S.V. Kuznetsov, P.G. Nikitenko, A.I. Shishkin. For example, previously declared theme of this issue “Social development of the European North” has expanded to “Modernization of the European North economy”; new sections are introduced – “Knowledge Economy”, “Industrial economy”, “Economic Theory”; the postgraduate section “Young researchers” is being filled with articles.

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The scientific community is well aware that in today's world one of the main evaluation criteria of both a researcher, and scientific organization in general are indicators of citation, along with the publication activity. Therefore, our editorial staff pay special attention to the work related to the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI)7. All issues of the journal in Russian and English8 versions are placed in the Science Library. The editorial staff regularly monitors the number of citations of authors of the journal, so colleagues who have placed their articles on the pages of our publication, can get the information they are interested in (in addition to selfrefer to data provided at eLIBRARY.RU).

In search of quantitative assessments that characterize the quality of our journal, the editors regularly review the edition website. Today we offer you a list of the first fifteen articles on the total duration of their viewing 9. The editorial staff plans to publish such information in each issue and asks the authors and readers to make their suggestions about it.

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In conclusion I wish to recall that the final issue of this calendar year will focus on the problems of development of foreign trade activities in the regions of North-West federal district. However, the stated theme should not limit our authors in the choice of study. The editorial staff will consider all interesting, original scripts, all articles, offering unconventional solutions to the problems facing Russia.

The first fifteen articles in the journal on the total duration of their viewing

№ p.p.	Total duration of viewing (minutes)	Number of viewings	Average viewing time	Title of the article	Issue of the journal	Authors
1.	5837	219	27	The development of regional cluster systems	№1 March 2008	Tamara V. Uskova
2.	5443	178	31	Spatial aspects of socio-economic differentiation of the region's population	№7 September 2009	Ludmila V. Kostyleva
3.	4558	270	17	Organizational and economical mechanisms for the implementation of strategic priorities for tourism and recreation in the North-West of Russia	№6 June 2009	David T. Akhobadze
4.	3711	141	26	Prospects for small innovative enterprises in the academic and university sectors of science in St. Petersburg	№6 June 2009	Alexey A. Rumyantsev Alexey G. Strelnikov
5.	3083	176	18	Methodological basis of innovative development of agro-industrial complex	№2 June 2008	Valentin A. Ivanov
6.	2978	111	27	The tourism sector: levels and approaches to its formation	№5 March 2009	Tamara E. Dmitrieva Vitaly A. Schenyavsky
7.	2938	182	16	State and prospects of development of tourism industry in the Vologda region	№5 March 2009	Svetlana A. Selyakova Lyudmila V. Dubinicheva Kirill V. Markov
8.	2773	131	21	Strategy to diversify the economy of the region	№1 March 2008	Leonid G. Iogman
9.	2171	104	21	Housing construction in the region: problems and solutions	№6 June 2009	Anna I. Povarova Olga N. Gordina Tamara V. Uskova Anna M. Cherevko
10.	2096	126	17	Technological innovations is a necessary condition for improving labour productivity in the Pechora coal basin	№4 December 2008	Albina A. Kalinina Vera P. Lukanicheva
11.	1922	92	21	The region’s economy: from crisis to sustainable development	№7 September 2009	Leonid G. Iogman
12.	1905	99	19	Trends and prospects of socio-economic development of the Murmansk region	№1 March 2008	Vladimir V. Didyk
13.	1902	95	20	Regional aspects of food security	№7 September 2009	Valentin A. Ivanov Vitaly V. Terentyev
14.	1815	111	16	Problems of tourism development in the Arkhangelsk region	№5 March 2009	Vera E. Toskunina Natalia N. Shpanova
15.	1791	110	16	State of tourism sector in economic crisis	№5 March 2009	Yury N. Plekhanov Elena S. Ageyeva Yulia N. Bulatova