№ 3 (2015)

In the given article, the authors propose and operationalize the notion of “charts power” (or “index power”, “ratings power”) as a significant component of soft power of national states and international institutions. The authors prove that numerous comparative ratings of different countries that have become extremely popular in recent decades could be used as an economic weapon and an effective tool of influence. The article analyses the mechanisms of ratings power and emergence of “rating thinking”. The authors conclude about the importance of actual and potential threats to national security of the Russian Federation from charts power of the foreign states.

The article deals with contemporary political trends related to new forms of relationship between the secular and religious spheres of society. The focus is on the specifics of the Russian manifestation of the religious factor in politics, as well as the attitude of Russians to the inclusion of the religious component in the socio-political space.

In this article, the author analyses the causes of the Autocephalous movement in Ukraine on the basis of memoirs of Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov). The activities of the Local Council Orthodox of Moscow of 1917-1918, and its decisions regarding the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are analyzed. The influence of the Ukrainian nationalist movements on the work of Church Councils in Kiev in 1918 and 1921 is described in the article.

The article investigates the ways to measure the communication links in political networks. The author considers the new technologies that analyze user data and build graphs with nodes. Much attention is paid to the development of Internet measurement in the field of political communications.

This article examines the problems and perspectives of post-soviet integration processes, on the example of Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Union. The main political and economic grounds for Armenia’s accession to the Union are pointed out in the article. This research, through the elements of the method of SWOT analysis, reviews scenarios of possible developments around Armenia and the Eurasian Union. The author concludes that Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Union is a mutually beneficial geopolitical, geostrategic step, which may promote the post-soviet integration processes.

In today's world Salafism, which has evolved from insignificant and apolitical to the very influential movement is the subject of active discussion. This article discusses and analyzes the historical background, the conditions of formation and propagation of Salafi movement in Egypt. In addition, the author disclosed the role and the place of this movement in modern political life of Egypt.

The problem of research of political culture in modern China in relation to global trends is studied in the article. In particular, the author analyzes the history and causes of formation of various research approaches to traditional Chinese political culture and political culture in general. Researches of political culture of China by Russian scientists is not very detailed. The author sets a goal to acquaint the Russian scientific community with modern research of political culture of China by Chinese scientists.