The article deals with topical issues of the institutional model of political and diplomatic relations on the diagonally Ukraine–Turkey in the context of improving security institutions, achievements, problems and dilemmas of foreign policy and diplomacy, as well as their influence on the evolution of the foreign policy of these countries in a globalized world, new challenges and modern threats in the context of the new architectonic space security of the XXI century. The Republic of Turkey in recent years has taken the position of a regional leader and define its foreign policy strategy in the new polycentric world. At the same time, Ukrainian-Turkish and Turkish-Russian relations took a central place in the foreign policy of official Ankara, and greatly influenced the formation of its policy in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the Middle East and other regions of the world that are of strategic importance for Turkey.

In the paper contradictory development of Moldavian-Russian trade and economic cooperation, especially in conditions of the change of Moldova’s geovector from strategic partnership with the RF to European integration is studied. One-sided vector of the RM in favour of European integration finally confirmed by the Moldavian leadership after the signing of the Association agreement with the EU and enforcement of the Free trade zone with the EU (2014) was the principal cause of considerable loss of traditional Russian market. Just cooperation with Russia for many years took the key position in the system of external economic ties of Moldova. In the part “Pro-European transformation of external economic ties and its consequences” the causes of the crash of mutual foreign trade turnover of two countries are analysed. Emphasis is laid on the principal cause of the challenge for trade of the RF with Moldova which stipulated forced policy of the RF aimed at protection of its internal market from re-export of production from Europe. Russia adopted a number of restrictive measures against the RM including actual abolition of the free trade zone, introduction of duties on export of the Moldavian production as well as embargo on import of wines and agricultural production. Besides toughening of the customs regime, the position of the RF on import substitution was extended to Moldova after the West imposed sanctions against Russia. In the part “Priority directions of cooperation of the RM with the RF” special role of partnership with Russia in such important fields for the Moldavian economy as power engineering and wine-making production, in investment cooperation, in the sphere of labour migration is shown. In the concluding part of the article initiatives of publicly elected President of the RM I. Dodon (November 2016) aimed at restoration of former foreign trade ties with Russia and other EAEU countries are considered. In this connection attention is paid to the fact that by agreement of I. Dodon with the Russian President V. Putin (January 2017) the first progress in solution of some problems has appeared. In particular, the RF is ready to cancel restrictions by fito-sanitary norms, in the sphere of labour migration amnesty for the part of Moldavian workers in the RF is proposed. At the same time attention is paid to existing opposition to the initiative of I. Dodon to restore strategic partnership with Russia in conditions of diarchy turned out in the country: president — pro-European parliamentary majority and government.

The article is devoted the comprehension of the science-theoretical tool of research of revolutionary shocks in Russia. The 100-years-old anniversary of revolutionary shocks in Russia pulls out before researchers the vital task of complex comprehension of reasons, character and consequences of revolution. Scientific tasks which stood before the scientists of soviet epoch lay mainly inplane illumination of event of revolution and Civil war as displays of fight of «leading revolutionary class» — proletariat at the head with bolshevist communist party with «regressive classes» — bourgeoisie, squires, clergy, the «kulak». Within the framework of this main approach, researchers succeeded to form the fully integral scientific picture of social and political conflict of 1917-1922 years, on the whole to expose his motive forces, leading political actors, to trace the dynamics of events.
However and presently to a full degree the task of comprehensive scientific analysis of structural-functional features of becoming and evolution of organs of power saves the actuality, which functioned within the framework of the different political modes, including modes of antibolshevist orientation. The important element of search is an exposure of specific of mutual relations of public institutions, basic directions of policy, historical factors which stipulated acceptance and practical realization of important administrative decisions.
Іnstitucional approach must organically complement dominant to this day in scientific literature historical-event approach. Institucional approach consists in that a look to the social and political process is inplane not «from» (as in the historical-event measuring) outside, and, vice versa, «from within». In obedience to this approach, research attention applies foremost on subsoil and on organization of administrative mechanisms, internal logic of acceptance both key and, on the face of it, second-rate decisions, tracing of consequences of these decisions, in the nearest and remote historical prospect. The system of organization of power, accentuation of certain valued orientiriv, character of co-operation, between leading organs acquire the value of major (and sometimes decision) factor of social and political process. Important advantage offered approach is that he allows expressly to realize the «central nerve» of epoch, trace the change of socialideological dominants, transformation of management methods.
Within the framework of institucional approach an author grounds the use of term «fragmentation of power». An author shows that this term is more unitversal, than term «diarchy», which presently prevails in scientific literature. In the article the fundamental differences of term come to light «fragmentation of power» from a term «diarchy».

The institution of extradition dates back from the thousands of years, during which the institution mentioned above has become in permanent evolving, with social relations getting complicated. Globalization, as a socio-political phenomenon, has the greatest impact on extradition having complicated and modified the process making it responds to current challenges on the part of society. And, despite the fact that eventually positive attitude toward human rights has come to characterize the institution of extradition, such legal acts as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Convention on the Protection of the Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Convention against Torture and many others have become an important stage on its way, which ultimately have brought about changes in usual perception of the institution, having adopted the necessity of securing individual rights in it in connection with extradition through transnational cooperation.
Intensive discussion of extradition questions in legal literature, abundance of legal acts by no means approaching emerging issues repetitively, constantly arising empirical evidence of lack of clearly defined methods of international cooperation on extradition questions lead to the need to address the deep causes of the problem, to determine the place of extradition in the system of international law, to work out effective legal standards that would enable the institution of extradition to realize its full potential in the fight against world crime. In the post-Soviet space a set of regulations and principles, concerning extradition issues, appeared. It determined the process of getting out offenders: the rule of double criminality, the rule of specialization, the principle to extradite or prosecute and others.
The article is ted to study of the institution of extradition and is focused on the analysis of its past, changes, which it endured during its formation, and problems that the institution faces nowadays. This subject is quite sensitive strictly because it is regulated not only by rules of a particular state, but by rules of international law.
Contemporary international law can be characterized as a vector directed to protect human rights that undoubtedly affected the nature of the institution. Inaccuracies in contemporary legislation, penal problems of extradition are often complicated by interference of a political factor. In other words, relations between states on the world stage often have a huge influence on the process of extradition. At the same time, current political situation and political motives of subjects have a great impact on the institution of extradition.
In this work the authors consider the political aspect of the institution of extradition (giving the offenders out) in modern legislation. The study of these issues, connected with exclusion of political crimes from the scope of extradition, should be further developed in both international contract law and national legislation.

The article explores intended use of infocomms in creation of political media reality, acting as a virtual environment, effectively replacing reality. A noteworthy detail is that mainstreaming of information and communication technologies into political sphere substantially increases the authoritative potential for the media discourse. Those forces that assert their own media versions of events and media images for their participants have been winning in the competitive struggle amidst media discourses today. Furthermore, all available communication channels (television, media, Internet resources, mobile telecommunications) are used to set up a political pseudo-environment for their information consumers, replacing political reality. The article shows what way new media resources, initially aimed at manipulating the mass consciousness in the pre-election race are being incorporated today. In particular, impressive manipulative media effects are demonstrated when a fake discourse is included in the media space. In addition, computer attacks, hacking, and the prime of independent cyber organizations fighting against the “world evil” are in effect as an instrument in the political struggle, in obtaining compromising material and interstate opposition. The work records the inclusion of graphic elements, emoji, clips in the media discourse. In general, symbols, encroaching into the politics space, become a part of the political mainstream, change the style of political demonstrations, discussions, chats that unite adherents to influence the actions of the authorities. It follows that the political media reality design, supported by the latest information and communication technologies tools, directly affects the perception of what is happening on a global scale, quickly formatting the mass consciousness.

The South Caucasus is a specific region in the whole political history of mankind. For centuries this region, acting as a bridge between the countries of the East and West, has been in a clash centre of religions, civilizations, nations and states.
At the present stage, global and regional actors of international relations began to express their interests in the spread of their own influence over the region. Turkey, the main goal of which is to become a regional leader, has also joined this great game. In terms of implementing this policy Turkey highly appreciated the geographic location of Georgia, fulfilling the role of a bridge between Turkey and the Turkic-speaking world. Since the mid-1990s Turkey has actively penetrated to this country, spreading its influence in almost all spheres and providing a reliable corridor for penetration into the Turkic-speaking states.
Georgia, in its turn, began to view Turkey as a reliable political and economic partner both in bilateral relations and in the regional dimension. The main motivation for Georgia is its integration into the Euro-Atlantic alliance with the help of Turkey.
Thus, the interest of the two countries led them to bilateral corporation in almost all spheres, at the same time leaving some problems and contradictions in the second plan.
In the article has been reviewed the role and the place of Georgia in Turkey’s foreign policy in the regional context. This article explores the evolution of Turkish-Georgian relations, considers new trends in bilateral relations at the present stage. In the article has been analyzed Turkish-Georgian economic and military-political relations. General conclusions were made in regard to new trends in Turkish-Georgian relations in the 21st century.

The issue of democracy in the countries of post-Soviet space is of particular interest to the scientific and expert community. Not the last role in these processes was played by the escalation of the number of ethnic conflicts that have taken place in the territories of these countries.
However, the American political scientist M. Mann has offered a new perspective on processes of democratization. He developed the concept of “the dark side of democracy”. According to the author, democracy can be seen not only in the traditional sense as “people power”, but as “the power of a particular ethnic group”. In the second approach, widespread ethnic cleansing that occur in the course of the development of conflicts at the national (religious) grounds. Аll the negative feelings, from class to religious hatred is a reason for the intensification of ethnic nationalism. In the case of escalation of conflict, he began to absorb particular components of ethnic confrontation (favoritism in respect of individual group members, discrimination against outsiders the existence of ethnic tensions, the presence of horizontal inequalities between culturally divided groups). While maintaining these trends, says M. Mann, we can say that the dark side of democracy is expressed in the perversion of the liberal or socialist ideals of democracy.
According to M. Mann, at a time when certain ethnic or religious group (Turks, Hutus, Albanians) begin classify themselves as the true exponents of the popular will, is a perversion of the true democratic values and democracy as a whole. Referring to the experience of the Soviet Union, M. Mann notes that the role of such a “privileged” political actor in socialist societies the assigned classes. The analyst notes that a particularly brutal and bloody purge — a phenomenon of modernity, since in earlier times they were not as widespread as in the 80-90-years of the twentieth the twentieth century.
As the most striking instance of the countries in which the concept of the dark side of democracy became widespread, the author of the article was chosen Yugoslavia (period 80’s-90’s of the twentieth century) and Ukraine (modern political processes in the country occurring since 2014 to present). These states were chosen because of the similarity of the processes of democratization, the presence of ethnic conflict (the confrontation between Albanians, Croats, Serbs in Jugoslavia and the Western and South-Eastern part of Ukraine), as well as the presence in both countries political actors seeking to justify pre-emptive right to the sovereignty of a particular territory.

The article examines origins and causes of tensions in relations between Russia and Latvia today, their manifestations, and possible scenarios of their development in the future. The dominant feature of today’s Russian-Latvian relations is their political component. This situation first emerged in 2014, the year of the coup d’etat in Ukraine and the year of the Crimea joining Russia. The spirit of confrontation in Russian-Latvian relations and the increasing degree of tension has been fueled not by Russia but by Latvia, and, in the background of the situation, NATO, and, first and foremost, the United States. In 2005 the Latvian National Security Concept Program underscored “absence of military threat for Latvia or other Baltic states,” in 2015 the new edition changes its focus completely and mentions the “Russian threat.” Latvia does not play an independent role in foreign relations with Russia, but the country is using Russia as playing the role of an aggressor. As Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are fully dependent on the US and the EU, they are forced to comply with foreign policy orders of their Western creditors, even if these demands contradict these countries’ own interests. Considerable changes have taken place in Latvia in the early 1917, when the legal status of US military personnel was changed.
Consistently implementing these changes will turn virtually the entire territory of Latvia into the military infrastructure of the United States. As US military bases are being created in Latvia, it is equivalent of having American troops on the border with Russia. Obviously, Russia does not threaten Latvia in any way. An open conflict with NATO and the US could be used only as a last resort. But nothing depends on Moscow’s wishes anymore, and we can only watch the Baltic States being dragged further away from Russia. If previously, hoping to start a major European war, Washington placed its faith in Kyiv, now they find that strategy failing. The Baltic States appear to be an almost perfect testing ground for a major provocation. For now the Russian leadership still has some room for maneuver, but these options are rapidly shrinking. Almost all predictions about the future development of Russian-Latvian relations say that these will not be bilateral relations proper, but will depend on the dynamics of US-Russia relations. Looking at the dynamics of US military presence in Latvia, these predictions are fully justified.