Suchergebnisse

For the first time in protozoology, research was carried out on the fauna of testate amoebae in a city park. One hundred and nine species and infraspecific taxa of this group of free-living protozoa were found in various types of habitats in the Bitsevsky Forest park in Moscow. To assess the species diversity of testate amoebae, samples were taken from tree hollows; small oligo-mesotrophic swamps; epiphytic mosses from tree trunks; mosses on deadwood; bottom samples from reservoirs; soil samples near tree trunks, as well as directly in the area of the Yasenevo park estate. Various ecological groups of testate amoebae have been identified, the richest communities of eurybionts inhabited soils, as well as mosses on deadwood. Bottom sediments of manor ponds were inhabited mainly by hydrophilic species of the genus Difflugia.

Challenges the European economy began to face 12 years ago raised the question about actions European Central Bank (ECB) have to undertake to maintain the financial sustainability, considering its objective to ensure price stability while coping with a changed economic environment. Provision that the ECB is obliged to take efforts to ensure financial stability as well as potentially serious consequences of crisis' impact on the banking system and industrial production, led to an expansion of its role beyond standard monetary policy measures, with the unconventional steps being taken in addition to conventional to combat the adverse impact of the financial crisis. While reducing the interest rate, ECB also provided a cheap financial capital for banks via fixed-rate "Long Term Refinancing Operations" (LTROs), and three "Covered Bond Purchase Programmes" (CBPP). Purchases of debt securities were also conducted via "Securities Market Programme" (SMP) and, later, with then ECB's President Mario Draghi declaring that ECB will do "whatever it takes to preserve the euro", possibility of their increase was announced with the start of "Outright Monetary Transactions" (OMT) Programme. A mere announcement of the OMT was enough to calm financial markets, as none of the eurozone countries applied for financial support within this programme's framework. Then ECB proceeded with a full-fledged quantitative easing, starting to buy sovereign bonds under its Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP), having spent 2.6 trillion € on its implementation. Understanding that a monetary union without an efficient banking union is unacceptably dangerous, the European Banking Union, under which supervision of largest eurozone banks has transferred directly to the ECB, was progressively established. While ECB's anti-crisis policies achieved their goals, prolongation of the strategy it adopted may create new risks for the financial stability of the euro area, such as excessive dependence of credit institutions on monetary support and excessive inflationary risks under a zero interest-rate policy. Still, EU institutions' coordinated financial management played an important role in overcoming the existing turbulence, with fiscal and monetary policy measures reinforcing each other.

As opposed to the overwhelming majority of researches within the so called "Diplomatic studies" that focus on an institutional design of external services (which appears to be "the form" of diplomacy per se), this article deals with "the substance" of the matter in question, paying special attention to the means and ways of educating and integrating young diplomats into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Unlike the State Department (the USA), Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO, the UK), le Quais d'Orsay (the MFA of France) or Das Auswärtige Amt (the MFA of Germany), that are influenced by the so-called "political appointees", the Russian diplomatic service is renowned for its "career diplomats", who generation after generation are recruited into the Ministry to form (by means of different vertical and horizontal ties) a close-knit team that promotes the country's national interests on the world stage. Thus, the authors explore the process of renewal of the Russian diplomatic service, whereby young diplomats are being purposefully groomed in several national Universities (namely, MGIMO-University or Diplomatic Academy) to subsequently rise through the ranks of the Ministry by taking disparate career trajectories (for example, depending on or, conversely, irrespective of the foreign languages they acquired), occupying different job families (desk work, protocol, interpretation, consular service, public relations, etc.), taking part in a diplomatic rotation that will bring them to various home (in Headquarters) and overseas (Embassies, Permanent Missions and Consulate- Generals) postings and acquiring new ranks as a prerequisite to promotion from junior to senior positions. As a result, Russia's diplomatic service has come to be seen as a full-fledged system, the key to understanding of which lies not in depicting the existing institutional framework (which appears to be the focus of the overwhelming majority of works on the matter), but in scrutinizing main recruitment principles and the MFA's personnel policy, thoroughly analyzed in this article.

On March 5, 2019, the Constituent Congress of the Russian Association of Himalaya and Tibet Researchers was held. The area is considered as natural territories and cultural space. Information is given on the goals and objectives of this organization. It is reported that at the congress it was decided to conduct only partial elections to the board of the association, leaving some vacancies for by-elections at the First Congress of the Russian Association of Himalayan and Tibetan Researchers in 2020. The material contains 9 unanimously elected board members, members of the audit and selection committees. The Association is open to all the Himalayas and Tibet researchers sharing their goals and tasks, regardless of their place of residence and affiliation.

The article is devoted to the herpetological research of USSR nature reserves that were described in the scientific journal published over 30 years ago. The author proposes some new directions of herpetological research in nature reserves of Russia, in particular, studying of critically significant territories for amphibians and reptiles and the research of invasive species.