The article deals with the analysis of a wide range of risks introduced by the pandemic, which have already manifested themselves, and which the world has yet to realize and evaluate, and which have to be fought. The pandemic forced states to quickly take special measures in order to counter the new global infection: from declaring emergency situations to imposing various restrictions, including those affecting human rights. In the context of social restrictions, there is a rapid transformation of the daily lifestyle and behavior patterns of the population, which adversely affects people’s health. All this has led to the fact that governments are forced to pay special attention to health issues.

The article considers the forms and results of the reform of the state administration system under Peter I, examines the reasons for the formation of the first models of servicemen, characterizes the specifics in regulating the order of their work and norms of behavior at the legislative level (“Maritime Charter”, “Table of Ranks”, “General Regulations”, etc.). The development and adoption of all those documents was an innovation in the field of public administration in Russia at the beginning of the18th century that allowed the use of structured and effective practices of organized administration. The methodological basis for governance established at that time is still in place today, as the collegiums turned into ministries that existed until the revolution of 1917. After the Bolsheviks came to power, the new leadership, in one way or another, in the form of People’s commissariats, retained almost all the previous ministries and the experience of their activities, and after the collapse of the USSR, the latter were inherited by the Russian Federation. In addition, the acts initiated by Peter I not only established requirements for the military, naval and state civil service, but also gave them all a completely different meaning and content. The priority goal of serving one’s Fatherland was put forward in the first place. That is, people were united not by blind obedience to the royal decrees, as it was before, but by the understanding that their activities were primarily related to the public good and bringing benefits to the state as a whole. Such a rethinking of work gave birth to new organizational values and increased the interest of employees in achieving socially significant results. The relevance of the article is to use the experience of the past years to find effective levers that motivate people to be useful to each other and their country.

The article deals with what is relevant today for post-Soviet countries, and what is relating to both the development of intellectual human capital and to following the need to transform higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on research in current trends, the article considers the competencies required today in the field of higher education (HE), which can transform crises into opportunities. Digital competencies are becoming a necessity and are developing not only due to the dictation of the widespread dissemination of new digital technologies in the modern world educational environment, but also of the social, physical and political realities, ignoring which will lead to lagging behind and the loss of competitiveness of the university. Media and information literacy is recognized as one of the most important competencies in the current realities of the society digital transformation the neglect of which can lead to chaos in the perception of the world. Taking into account the current challenges, the authors outlined important tasks facing the sphere of higher education in post-Soviet countries, using the example of the Republic of Armenia. Following the analysis of world trends, scientific literature and expert opinions, they also revealed the issues that our countries face in the field of innovative transformation of the educational sphere into a free common space, contributing to the development of intellectual human capital in the context of digitalization. Among other things, the digitalisation processes and rapid development of the information and communication technologies make an issue of mastering the media and the information literacy competences relevant. The article is concluded with some possible steps addressing the challenges facing the education system. The research results can be used in the educational process by educational specialists and the digitalization participants in order to improve the educational policy of the RA.

The article studies a current issue of methodological support for the development of competition in the electric power market (hereinafter referred to as EPM) in the context of global changes and digitalization. The purpose of the study is to develop a theoretical basis for the development of acceptable conditions for competition in the modern EPM. It is shown that in most countries of Europe, the USA and in the widespread regions of the world, the processes of transforming the EPM differ significantly in such factors as the development of distributed generation capacities and digitalization. In order to increase the business efficiency in the field of the electric energy turnover, a methodology for the implementation of systemic theoretically developed measures aimed at further developing competition in the modern energy market is proposed. The research materials are of practical value for electric power industry organizations, consumers of electric energy interested in implementing additional entrepreneurial opportunities in the EPM in the context of digitalization, as well as government bodies interested in developing and improving the efficiency of the electric power industry. The proposed methodology can be used in practice when developing and implementing a concept and a new set of measures to promote competition in the market under consideration, taking into account new digital technologies and management capabilities based on the use of big data and artificial intelligence.

The paper substantiates the key importance of the intellectual property factor in international economic and legal relations in the formation, development and improvement of economic entities in all leading economically developed countries. The author describes how analyzing the growth in statistics for registration of various objects of intellectual property law allowed him to develop a conviction about the transition of humanity to a new qualitative, more intellectual state. At the same time, the phenomenon of intellectual nature was discovered, what led to the conclusion o the birth of a new science of “intellectology”. That may result in an update of the modern theory of economics, law and economic management, as well as an improvement in the quality of decisions and the accuracy of forecasts in any economic situations.

In order to increase administrative efficiency, formulate regional policy, identify issues of local development, allocate resources, etc., most countries in the world subdivide their national territory into administrative units (regions). However, according to many scientists and practitioners, the established administrative units, despite their official status and stability, in most cases have some limitations and disadvantages associated with obtaining the necessary information about their development, especially when it comes to international comparability. That circumstance arouses great interest among the scientific community and practitioners in the issues of economic regionalization.
In foreign literature, the identification and delineation of regions is usually based on the concept of local / regional labor markets. At the same time, local labor markets are influenced by a large number of external factors and are not stable over time, which complicates the procedure for determining the optimal number and quantitative parameters of administrative units. The article presents a methodology for determining the quantitative parameters of administrative units of various levels, based on the application of the “random forest” algorithm for the classification of territories using quantitative and categorical variables characterizing the level of their socio-economic development. Approbation of the methodology as exemplified by the Republic of Belarus made it possible to establish the critical values of the quantitative parameters of the administrative units of the first and basic levels, the achievement of which will ensure the uniform development of the selected regions.

The article considers conceptual issues of meaningful interpretation, the current state and prospects for further development of eco-tourism, with regard to environmental conservation and the rational exploitation of natural resources. In Russia, as a country with immense tourist and recreational potential, ecological tourism is becoming more and more in demand not only in specially protected natural areas, but also in regions that have never positioned themselves as tourist destinations before. However, a few legal, infrastructural and organizational constraints and issues that prevent its more active development in Russia. The authors highlighted the conceptual characteristics of eco-tourism in comparison with terms similar in meaning – natural tourism, natural and educational tourism, green tourism, soft tourism. Legislative consolidation of the definition of the term “ecological tourism” will allow to clearly identify that type of tourism, to form the industry professional requirements for its organization, to apply the best available technologies.

This article outlines the role of offshore companies in the relations of the parties in the field of insolvency (bankruptcy), the issue of finding legal methods of disclosing the connection between the actions of beneficial owners (individuals controlling the debtor) that are aimed to conceal the assets of the debtor in offshore zones and to bring those individuals to responsibility in order to compel them to return the funds withdrawn from the Russian Federation and to pay the debt of their controlled enterprise in favor of the bona fide creditors. The concepts and norms of the Russian Codes: Civil, Tax and Criminal, Laws of N 127-FZ and N 115-FZ are analyzed. Two ways of solving that issue are proposed. The first is to include in Federal Law N 115-FZ a norm providing for the liability of beneficial owners for the withdrawal of assets to accounts in foreign banks, which entailed the insolvency and bankruptcy of the organization. The second method involves a comprehensive legal, technical and linguistic discourse analysis of key terms and concepts used in basic codified Russian laws in order to unify and differentiate its key legal concepts.

The article considers controversial issues of the legal regime of service and work as objects of civil rights, s the value of the criterion of the result materialization when correlating the categories of “work” and “service”.