The Caspian Sea is the intercontinental, international, transboundary enclosed inland water body. It receives flows of such large rivers as Volga, Ural, Terek, Kura, and Sefidrud. The Caspian is highly dynamic. In view of its unique behavior, precisely the water level fluctuations, the research of not only these processes and their forecast, but careful study of the design and engineering solutions were required here because the results of such researches determine the social and economic development of the coastal areas.

The Caspian became the focus of attention usually at the times when the period of its level drop changed over for its rise (or vice versa). It is in these periods that the “critical mass” of the gradually accumulating environmental, social and economic consequences of any kind should find “outlet”. In other words, the need “to save the Caspian” and “to be saved from the Caspian” appeared. In the past decades, till 1930, the economic activities in the Caspian region, such as oil production, shipping, fishery, lifestyle of the local population got adapted to the existing level of the Caspian Sea. The first level drop in the Caspian in the 1930s was the first alarming and even shocking bell that stirred anxiety for its future. At the same time, the change of the Caspian level has incurred considerable damage.

This situation forced the riparian states to develop various projects aimed to take into consideration the Caspian level fluctuations and, simultaneously, to stabilize its level. Many suggested solutions were of a global scale and were not realizable. Moreover, the developers of practically all projects did not understand properly the significance of these processes, thus, inadequate assessment of their consequences. And, finally, many proposals concerning development of the riparian territories with regard to the Caspian level fluctuations could lead to serious environmental disturbances that would entail negative consequences in the following decades. 

In this article, the author attempts to determine the strategic directions of Romania’s foreign policy. Significant geopolitical events in Europe expose the need to clarify the priorities of the policy pursued by the country. Historically in foreign relations Romania has employed diplomatic strategies that allowed it, according to historians, to «anoeuvre» between the centres of power on the international arena. However, in the early 2000’s a departure from this tradition has become apparent, especially during the administration of Traian Basescu (2004–2014), which also coincided with the country’s joining NATO in 2004 and EU in 2007. After the collapse of the socialist bloc Romania set its priorities, firstly, in the direction of joining both NATO and EU and later bringing the country in accordance with their norms and standards was put high on the agenda. Having become a member of the Alliance and an EU-state, Romania has been determining its foreign policy from the point of view of synchronizing its strategic goals with those of NATO and EU. Along with this, the strategic partnership with the US and the attached to it significant importance for Romania dictate the one-sided political approach deprived of the traditional manoeuvre capability in foreign affairs. This is also proven by the fact that despite the declared and established privileged relations with a number of countries, the level of their “strategic” execution is very low in reality. That being said, the direction of the relations between Romania and the Russian Federation, whose views on many regional and international issues differ, are likely to be greatly influenced by the state of the Russia-West affairs. Having analyzed the historic and current aspects of Romania’s foreign policy, the author determines the preservation of the euroatlanticism course as the main direction of the development of the foreign policy of Romania.

Despite the fact that the production of hydrocarbons in the Caspian Sea basin is not a priority for Iran, Tehran attaches special importance to strengthening economic cooperation with the littoral states. Iran, which was out of a regional discourse for a long time, comes up with initiatives that can shape new approaches towards the regional development in a broad array of issues, including extraction and transportation of hydrocarbon resources. For instance, recent developments have shown that the Iranian authorities clearly acknowledge that the energy factor still has a prevailing influence on both the shaping and implementation of economic and foreign priorities of the Caspian states, the economy of which remains export-oriented. As a result, Iran started to prepare the ground for the joint development of the Caspian offshore deposits and resuming oil swap operations.

Therefore, the main purpose of the paper is to consider Iran’s policy toward the Caspian region highlighting Tehran’s energy strategy towards the Caspian basin and focusing on the exploration activities and prospects of development of offshore fields, as well as energy cooperation with littoral states. 

The article is devoted to the study of the influence of the language policy on political stability in Ukraine. The article examines the current provisions of the Ukrainian legislation related to the development of language policy, as well as the provisions of the latest draft laws on the status of languages in Ukraine. The authors have analyzed recent trends in the development of language policy, which are a source of destabilization in modern Ukraine.

The problem of ethno-political stability becomes one of the key problems for the modern Ukrainian state. This issue was on a par with socio-economic issues and foreign policy interaction. Its scientific analysis is necessary to determine the impact of the state language policy implemented in Ukraine on the development of all regions of the country, which have significant differences in their national composition, history and traditions. In this context, the study of this issue has not only theoretical but also practical importance.

One of the draft laws regulating the language sphere assumes that foreign citizens who intend to obtain Ukrainian citizenship will have to take exams in the Ukrainian language. The required level of proficiency will be determined by the national Commission on the standards of the Ukrainian language. It will be created if the bill is passed by Parliament. This Commission will be entrusted with the task of determining the necessary level of proficiency in the state language for the persons willing to occupy certain positions.

The bill provides for the introduction of mandatory use of the state Ukrainian language by various authorities. It provides for the use of the Ukrainian language not only for documentation, but also for pre-election campaigns carried out at the expense of the state budget. The main trends that occur in the language sphere of Ukraine prove that they are part of the processes that occur in all the former republics of the USSR. They include the revival of interest in the national language and national culture, the desire to expand the social functions of the national language in different spheres of communication in each of the newly independent states and constitute a part of the process of statehood assertion.

The article reviews the main problems of international interaction in the political space of post-Soviet Russia. This research topic has been a burning and vital issue of the day over the last years. Moreover, it has become even more significant and urgent nowadays. From time to time the number of racial tensions and inter-ethnic conflicts is increasing everywhere. This fact is likely to indicate some disadvantages and faults of evaluating the state of international interaction. One of the reasons why it happened is the fact that scholars have not come to an agreement about this issue yet. Having thoroughly examined the current scientific theories and research areas, the author of the article took into consideration the most popular and widespread points of view on the problem. Such factors as the soviet «heritage», integration of ethnic minorities into the cultural space of civil nation, a great many opportunities for preserving national identity, etc. influenced the principles of international interaction in the political space of modern-day Russia. The results of the analysis of the above mentioned factors can be put into practice with a view to assess the potential of international interaction which will let predict their social and political importance and reveal possible flash seats of conflictogenity. The author’s attention is focused on considering the issues of the role of the government in the optimization of inter-ethnic relations. The main fields of concern of public authorities have been investigated. Policy papers and special-purpose programmes have been scrutinized. The author has also outlined the leading political figures’ attitude to this acute problem.

In recent decades, the political process in Kazakhstan has gone through several stages of its development. Each of them was associated with the specifics development of the Kazakh state, reflecting, among other things, the level of economic and social development.

After gaining independence, the political process in Kazakhstan was held in the conditions of growing economic problems, reorientation of trade and economic relations. The country’s leadership faced the need to address urgent socio-economic tasks and, at the same time, to prevent political chaos and anarchy.

Formation and subsequent development of the institution of the presidency, the formation of the party system, the development of parliamentarism required the alterations, and subsequently the adoption of a new version of the Basic Law of Kazakhstan. Its adoption made it possible to achieve the functioning of a strong presidential power in the country, combined with the presence of ideological pluralism, the development of the party system.

The problems of Kazakhstan’s political development were constantly in the field of view of the country’s leadership. After 2007, the president of the country initiated a course for a gradual redistribution of powers between the executive and legislative branches of power. The task was set to expand the powers of the legislature, while maintaining a strong presidential branch of power. Such changes were dictated by the tasks of Kazakhstan’s political development, its economy, active participation in integration projects, as well as greater involvement of the country in world political processes.

In the past few years, the political process in Kazakhstan has been marked by large-scale changes that reflect the incompleteness of political reform. A key element of the transformation is the creation of a system of power in which strengthening the presidential-parliamentary form of government will reflect the need to strengthen the role of parties. At the same time, in 2017– early 2018 various initiatives aimed at enhancing the stability of the existing political system are discussed in the country, which should give greater stability and predictability to the political process in Kazakhstan, creating the basis for its stable social and economic development. 

In the process of researching the geopolitical transformation of the post-Soviet space as a «Eurasian project», the author uses the method of comparative analysis of the official foreign policy documents of the founding States of the Eurasian economic union. The author, highlighting Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus as subjects of the «integration core» in the post-Soviet space, reinforces the integration aspirations of these countries with economic data indicating their growing interdependence during the decade preceding the creation of the Union in may 2014.

It is shown that the sanctions regime imposed by the Western countries on Russia and their negative impact on the economy of the EEU did not reduce the political will of the leaders of the «Troika» to continue further integration.

A detailed research of the policy statements (publications) of the political leaders of the EEU «integration core» allows to determine the special role of Kazakhstan and its President N. Nazarbayev in the implementation of this large-scale geopolitical project.

The author in considering programmatic foreign policy documents of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia offers to focus attention on the peculiarities of the positioning of the Eurasian economic union as integration entity. As a result, according to the author, the membership of Belarus in the «Eurasian project» was the result of a hard compromise for the Belarusian people. The Russian example shows that Moscow’s foreign policy vector was initially perceived by the EEU as a global project connecting Europe with the Asia-Pacific region. Now, however, Russia has positioned the EEU as a regional site. The author regards this as a decrease in the status of Eurasian integration and believes that this thesis looks very controversial. Kazakhstan, in turn, sees the «Eurasian project» as an opportunity to join the global economic chains. Thus, Astana attaches to the EEU exclusively global significance.

The position of the Kazakh leader in the course of meetings with Western leaders is emphasized. The leader of Kazakhstan traditionally positions the EEU as an adequate and successful economic integration entity with which it is necessary to establish cooperation in all spheres. This allows him to be assigned the status of «advocate» of the «Eurasian project». At the same time, the article notes the support of the Eurasian views of N. Nazarbayev on the ideas of classical Eurasians P. Savitsky, G. Florovsky, N. Trubetskoy, G. Vernadsky, S. Solovyov, L. Gumilev.

It is concluded that in the conditions of the remaining anti-Russian sanctions regime Kazakhstan’s participation in the EEU is one of the main factors of the legitimization of integration education at the regional and global levels. 

An author probes the relapses of insurgent antibolshevist motion in Crimea, taking place in 1923. At he leans mainly against exposed in the funds of the Record office of Republic Crimea operative materials of Parts of the special setting of Crimea, which had vulture of secrecy, targeted at the narrow circle of persons, making decision. On this account these sources cause the trust of researchers fully justified.

An author comes to the conclusion, that as compared to 1921–1922, the actions of the armed insurgent detachments carried episodic, irregular character. Not having support on wide social layers, their leaders could count mainly only on the not numerous survivor representatives of white officer, on insignificant part of peasantry and criminals, mainly followings the purpose of the personal making money. In regard to 1923 we already can not talk about any wide antibolshevist motion, and, rather, about the separate cases of the armed fight. Notably, that here in operative materials of Parts of the special setting high mobility of groups is fixed «green», aspiration of row of «gangsters» to abandon the limits of Crimea.

Examining a political situation in Crimea in this period, it is not unimportant to take into account a that circumstance, that on a peninsula at this time the emissaries of Britannic and German secret services worked actively, that those forces which before made considerable pushes for the overthrow of monarchy and untiing of Civil war on space of the Russian empire. Does not cause doubts, that formation of Crimean ASSR in composition soviet Russia in November, 1921, and also creation of the new powerful state the USSR with the social project in December, 1922, was not at all included in their plans. Therefore western opponents tried to use inertia of Civil war for destabilization of one of key regions of RSFSR.