This article examines the current military-political strategy of France in the Baltic region. This area has not traditionally been among the main priorities of French diplomacy. However, under President Emmanuel Macron, France pays closer attention to the Baltic Sea due to the growing tension between Russia and the West. According to France’s key strategic documents, the government assesses the present-day situation mainly in a negative way, considering Russian actions as the main reason for the militarization of the region and expressing its readiness to show solidarity with NATO allies. On this basis, Paris is gradually increasing its military presence in the Baltic region, which now exceeds its contingents in the Middle East and the Sahel. For example, French forces still participate in the NATO air policing programme as well as in naval exercises, keeping the troops in Estonia within the Lynx mission. France’s further activity in the region includes enhanced cooperation with Sweden and Finland after they accede to NATO, an already planned increase in military contingent in the Baltic States in 2023, and the development of the European Political Community project. The author concludes that even if France’s presence in the Baltic does not yet pose a critical threat to Russian security, Paris’s policy is becoming more pro-Atlantic to the detriment of previous statements about ‘European sovereignty’ and dialogue with Russia.

The article analyses the Polish political system and the increasing role of two political parties in it. This tendency has been observed in Poland for more than 15 years. We can draw a conclusion that two-and-a-half-party system has formed in Poland. Using Duverger’s phrasing, there is a “two-party tendency” in the functioning of the Polish model. The study analyses the facts that firm up this conclusion: not only the distribution of seats in the Sejm (the main criterion) but also many other quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the political system contribute to the development of the current political trend. The main goal of this article is to identify the factors that have led to the emergence and development of the tendency and assess the prospects of its further evolution, considering that both leading parties face multiple difficulties. The article concludes by pointing out that Poland is unlikely to continue strengthening its two-party tendency, and could instead return to the multiparty system with many influential parties which is more characteristic of the country historically. However, in recent years the leading role of two parties in the political system has had more positive effects rather than negative ones.

This paper explores the Estonian vision of Baltic identity. Estonia’s authorities have repeatedly articulated their scepticism towards the concept of a stand-alone ‘Baltic region’ and the inclusion of Estonia in it, preferring to position their state as a Nordic country. Yet, in numerous cases, they have clearly labelled Estonia as a Baltic State. To identify the contexts and meanings labelling the country as a Baltic State, this contribution provides a content analysis of official speeches given by Estonia’s political leadership. It is concluded that, despite the visibility of socioeconomic issues in the discourse, the most comprehensive image of Estonian ‘Balticness’ is constructed by interconnected narratives built around the Soviet past and the ‘security threats’ associated with Russia. The theoretical framework of regionalism, which allows one to consider the Baltics as a social construct rather than a set of material factors, provides an additional explanatory model.

The importance of studying the reputation of authorities is connected, on the one hand, with the formation of a consolidated system of political power and, on the other hand, with the highly social orientation of the category of the ‘reputation of authorities’, reflecting the value-based attitude of citizens towards them. The article presents the results of research aimed at the analysis of the reputation of Russian authorities, with a special focus on the regional branch of executive power. The paper examines the reputation of Russian authorities of different levels and branches using the example of regional executive bodies. The author determines the structure and features of the reputation core of the conceptual category ‘Russia’s authorities’ understood both as federal and municipal authorities of the Russian Federation as a whole. The article also offers a comparison of the reputation core of regional executive authorities with that of ‘Russia’s authorities’ in general. The methods used in this research are expert assessment and population surveys conducted in six regions of Central Russia. The study has revealed the main characteristics constituting the reputation core of executive authorities and described their specificity in different regions. Based on the results of the theoretical and empirical analyses, the author proposes a novel approach to defining the structure of the reputation core characteristic of the federal and regional executive authorities. The reputation core is a multi-component conceptual construct dominated by several integrating characteristics such as honesty, responsibility, justice, concern for and protection of citizens. No differences in the structure of the reputation core of the federal and regional executive authorities have been identified. However, the degree to which these characteristics manifest themselves varies. The reputation of regional authorities is assessed based on a system of values, expectations and the results of their work with the federal centre, citizens’ experience of communication with regional authorities and the assessment of their activity. The reputation of the regional executive authorities is characterised by lesser stability of the conceptual characteristics of the near periphery and greater dynamism of the outer conceptual boundaries, especially in specific regions.

Global manufacturing systems function in such a way that countries develop industrial spe­cialisation, which leads to territorial disparities. The countries of the Baltic region are no exception despite their strong economic ties and developed industries. A signifi­cant element of any manufacturing system is its scientific and technological subsystem, which is described in this article for ten countries (Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Nor­way, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia), based on an analysis of a clustered set of national character­istics: R&D financing and staffing in the scientific and technological subsystem. A total of ten indicators, absolute and relative, are investigated. The study relies on combined grouping, graphical and cluster analysis to build a typology of countries and distinguish their types ac­cording to their scientific and technological excellence As a result, a typology of the countries of the Baltic Sea region has been pro­posed and types of countries with similar characteristics have been identified: the two main types are traditional market economies and post-socialist countries, whose common features are observed in all sets of main characteristics. Several subtypes are described as well. The research draws on 2010—2019 (2020) statistical data from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat).

This article explores the spread of the Covid-19 infection in Russia’s Baltic macro-region. The monthly excess mortality rate in the Baltic region is analysed along with regional and municipal Covid-19 response acts to identify regional features affecting the spread of the disease. The spatial characteristics of Russia’s Baltic regions, germane to the propagation of Covid-19, were distinguished by examining selected social and economic statistical indicators. Based on the space of places/space of flows dichotomy, Russia’s Baltic regions can be divided into three spaces: 1) St. Petersburg, the Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions (dominated by spaces of flows; highly permeable space); 2) the Republic of Karelia and the Murmansk region (the key factors are rotational employment and the introduction of the virus from without); 3) the Novgorod and Pskov regions (lowly permeable spaces of places; the central role of local foci of the disease). The principal risk factor for the space of flows is the rapid spread of Covid-19 along transport arteries, whilst, within the space of places, the coronavirus spreads through spatial diffusion from isolated foci along short radii. In the former case, local authorities counteracted spatial diffusion by restricting movement in the local labour market; in the latter, by limiting travel between the centre and the periphery. The traditional ideas about positive (openness, centrality) and negative (closedness, peripherality) characteristics of space are reversed in the context of the pandemic: periphery gains the benefit of natural protection from the pandemic, whilst centres become acutely vulnerable.

This paper examines the transformation of the territorial structure of tourism in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The spatial and temporal organisation of tourism in these countries has undergone significant changes since they became independent and joined the EU. These changes have affected the geography of tourist flows and destinations of interest. This study aims to define the geographical and economic peculiarities of the development of tourism in the Baltic States and to identify the central, peripheral and semi-peripheral regions. Elements of the centre-periphery structure were identified through cluster analysis covering the period 2009—2019. Eleven indicators were used to determine the level of socio-economic development, the state of inbound and domestic tourism and the degree of transport infrastructure development. The results of the study suggest that there have been progressive changes in the territorial structure of tourism in the Baltic States. The main centres of attraction are the capitals and their adjacent territories. Horizontal contacts with more developed regions of the EU states and vertical interaction with other regions of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have a significant impact on the development of tourism activities. Central regions are dominant in terms of attracting tourist flows. This is characteristic of a highly polarized tourism structure. However, many semi-peripheral and peripheral regions have lately improved their position, being integrated into national and cross-border tourism routes and increasing outreach in the tourism market.

Tourism suffered more than many other sectors amid Covid-19 travel restrictions. This article looks at the impact of the pandemic on the territorial redistribution of tourist flows in the Baltic region. The study draws on regional annual and monthly data on international and domestic tourist arrivals between 2019 and 2021, available on the websites of the statistical offices of the Baltic Region countries. The regions earlier dependent on tourist arrivals from Russia experienced the largest drop in inbound tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, domestic tourism burgeoned in most of the region’s countries. In 2021, the most dramatic increase in domestic arrivals occurred, year on year, in the border regions of Russia’s Northwest Federal District; the growth was also notable in Finland and the Baltic States. Domestic tourist flow compensated, partially or even fully, for the decrease in inbound tourist flow in most regions. The structure of inbound tourism changed markedly during the pandemic, with the share of tourists from the Baltic States growing. The strongest rise was in some regions of southern Finland and more modest in Latvia and Lithuania.

This paper summarizes the results of the seminar “Geopolitical Security of Russia: Remarks on the Problem Statement”, held on August 26, 2022, at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad. During the seminar, the Institute of Geopolitical and Regional Studies of the university announced an initiative to devise a system of monitoring the geopolitical (regional) security of Russia. The debate centred around the development of a conceptual framework and a geopolitical security model as a prerequisite for the system. The discussion also covered other relevant issues, including the definition of geopolitical security and geopolitical space as well as the types of geopolitical threats and vulnerabilities. Another topic on the agenda was the analysis of theoretical approaches applicable to monitoring the geopolitical security in Russia. A constructivist approach based on discursive practices was viewed as the most promising for tracking changes in geopolitical threats. In this work, the emphasis should be placed on regional issues, i. e. the situation in particular regions. Other promising avenues for further research are the operationalization of relevant concepts and the development of a set of indicators of geopolitical threats and vulnerabilities, which Russia has already faced and may face in the future.