Abstract: Provocations have always been one of the most powerful levers of influence in politics. In the article its authors give generalized definition of political provocation as a technique of political confrontation, used by political actors, whose aim is to provoke response measures from the opponent and use their consequences to benefit its initiator. Usually, provocations are applied for destabilizing the situation, causing political crisis, escalating violence, discrediting the policies of states, parties, leaders and disinforming public by using organized actions of a subversive nature. That is why nowadays due to development of international law and popularization of sanctions their exploration draws even more attention of various scientists, politicians, etc. For this reason, the most detailed and comprehensive works on this subject are mentioned in the text. The work is based on a historical-comparative approach and theoretical methods such as analysis, synthesis and generalisation. As a result of exploration, modern classification of provocations could be done by various criteria. However, authors highlight that the most popular one is the division by functional purposes, containing five groups. In the article each group is illustrated by specific historical example of provocation application and description of its consequences. The authors note that although public attitude towards provocation is ambiguous, the potential power of such actions to influence political outcomes is considerable. For this reason, provocative techniques remain a topic of significant interest and investigation for researchers. It seems inevitable that certain groups within the global community will continue to employ provocations in a multitude of ways in their pursuit of power. In this regard, the authors emphasise that actors, seeking to influence the political situation, should understand how provocation can be used for this purpose and realise that there is always a risk of unexpected and uncontrollable consequences in provocative practices.

Keywords: political situation, classification of provocations, political influence, functions of provocations, political confrontation, politics, struggle for power, provocation, international community, manipulation

Abstract: The subject of the study of the influence of the religious factor in the electoral behavior of Muscovites. The purpose of the study is to assess the motivation of political choice and the participation of the electorate in the 2022 election campaign in Moscow from the point of view of the religious factor. We have considered aspects of electoral behavior, the significance of the religious factor, and conducted a characteristic of municipal self-government elections in the city of Moscow. The main analytical base of the article was collected as a result of a sociological survey conducted in August 2022, the data of which were obtained through a remote survey via the VKontakte social network, as well as through personal surveys of respondents. The voter's personal religious beliefs, which formed his attitude to the candidate, as well as the declared religiosity of the candidate himself, affecting his image, were established as a source of forming attitudes towards the candidate. Our research allowed us to form an opinion on the impact of the religious factor on the political sympathies of the electorate. Often, the political choice depends on the ethical and moral ideas formed by religion, with the help of which the program and the candidate's image are evaluated. At the same time, the electoral behavior of the voter is not dependent on his religiosity. We hope to continue our research to further understand the value of a religious resource in creating motivation for political participation among the electorate.

Keywords: sociological research, candidate, voter, political image, elections in Moscow, religious beliefs, municipal elections, religious factor, elections, electoral behavior

Abstract: This article discusses various approaches towards the question about strong states, and poses a problem of inappropriateness of combination of the modern signs that determine the modern state, problem of structuring and functioning of the state, as well as problems of modelling of the modern effective and strong nation. Depending on one or another point of view a upon the strength of the nation, we can make different conclusions about the efficiency and consistency of the modern state. The author analyzes the problem of juridization of the modern states, as well as the empirics that often does not coincide with the specified juridical constructs. The scientific novelty consists in the correlation of the technological approaches towards the strong nation with the ideological. The author concludes that an attempt to stay with one of these approaches will lead to the establishment of the inefficient statehood.  

Keywords: State, Strong, Weak, Essence, Modern, Technology, Contradictions, Consistency, Establishment, Modelling

Abstract: The subject of this research is the human choice in the conditions of paradoxicality, compared in the series of reviewed precedents with the uncertainty and risk. A special attention is given to the choice in the area of public and political relations. Rational and intuitive choice is being analyzed from the perspective of the influence of rational-logical paradoxes, freedom of choice paradox, and limited choice paradox. The author also draws attention to the examination of the restrictions of human choice, which include gender, rational, procedural, situational, intuitive, etc. The article presents the examples of human choice within the world history and modern political sphere. The scientific novelty of the conducted research consists in the author’s approach towards formation of the analytical spatial model – “foundations/criteria/terms of choice”, which would reflect key variables of the analysis of human choice with the focus upon the information-analytical component of the process. The author also concludes that the intuitive choice requires moderate and rational optimization, which can be achieved by using the information-analytical methodologies of increasing the fullness and structuring of information that lay at the core of the rational choice.

Keywords: manipulation of choice, paradox of choice, limitation of choice, uncertainty, choice, paradoxology, paradox, intuitive choice, rational choice, freedom of choice

Abstract: The research subject of the present article is the political banditism as a criminal form of supporting political activity. The purpose of the research is to develop a new scientific category “political banditism” and to provide the definition of political banditism from the point of view of the modern Russian political criminology. The tasks of the research include the following: a) to analyze and critically evaluate contemporary researches on the problems of political banditism; b) to provide a general description of the basic elements of political banditism as a criminal form of supporting political activity; c) to offer a definition of political banditism as a criminal form of supporting political activity. The methodological basis of the research involves dialectical materialism and associated general research methods such as comparison, analysis, synthesis and others methods of humanities. The main result of the research is the author’s definition of “political banditism” as a political and criminological category and description of the main elements of its structure and meaning of political banditism as a criminal form of supporting political activity. The scientific novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author provides a new definition of political banditism. This definition is different from definitions offered by other researches as it involves criminal support of political activity.

Keywords: political criminology, political crime, political extremism, political banditism, banditism, expropriation, economic terrorism, support (guarantees) of political activity, political activity, political actors.

Abstract: The present article reveals individual understanding of the essence of refl exive mechanisms and their direct infl uence on subject relations. The author emphasizes the algorithmic weakness of existing approaches to describing refl exive mechanisms which complicates their practical use, fi rst of all in the sphere of research of subject relations. Refl ective mechanisms should be shown in the course of motivation formation through reorganization of self-assessment of a subject. Therefore the author expands the defi nition of the refl exive mechanism as a procedure of detection of compliances of representations by applying assessment and evaluation to both compliances and reactions to them. Based on the analysis of various models of refl ection the author of the present article defi nes and classifi es working refl exive mechanisms. At the same time stages of the process of refl ection are considered. The author also focuses on the need for introduction of assessment procedures of mechanisms and offers and describes particular procedures for assessing refl ective mechanisms. The author of the article proves the importance and signifi cance of refl ective mechanisms of self-assessment due to their mathematical constructibility in studying subject relations. The type of refl ection used by a subject as a strategy of behavior, confl ict or cooperation, has the greatest importance. Thus, the results of the present research may help to better understand the category of refl exive mechanisms and their role in the organization of subject relations and self-knowledge processes. This seems to be a rather promising direction for future researches.

Keywords: refl ection, refl ective mechanisms, subject relations, evaluation systems, psychological image, perception, selfknowledge, self-assessment, representations, refl ective control, political subjects.