An analysis of the response of highly urbanized Russian regions to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic shows that regions with a high urban population share and many small and medium-sized businesses were most vulnerable; that regional differences were largely determined by the severity of health-related restrictions on business and social activity; and the extent to which regionally differentiated economic support measures and the adoption of digital technologies, new delivery methods, and a focus on new sectors stabilized aggregate supply and demand. Examination of the evolution of a resilience index permits identification of four paths: adaptively stable, vulnerable labile-adaptive, remission-adaptive and low-adaptive economies, and it reinforces the interpretation of the main drivers of regional resilience.

The recent years have seen increasing support for open science in academic circles. However, the large number of scientometric databases calls into question the comparability of the search and analysis tools they provide. Using the subject area of regional resilience as an example, in this study, the aim was to analyze the capabilities of widely used databases to serve as alternatives to Scopus and Web of Science in solving research problems. As alternatives, in the present article, the following open, free scientometric databases were considered: AMiner, Wizdom.ai, the Lens, Dimensions, and OpenAlex. Their capabilities were demonstrated for the subject area under study, and the obtained results were compared. The study results showed that alternative databases provide essential data on trends in scientific development. It is noteworthy that they largely replicate the provided data, supplementing and expanding them by using different types of data sources. However, open databases do not guarantee a high quality of materials and exhibit a relatively low level of metadata. Thus, it is premature to abandon the use of Scopus and Web of Science in research activities. Since scientometric databases were developed in different contexts, they are characterized by structural and functional heterogeneity, which complicates their comparison. Therefore, a selective approach should be adopted for the choice of scientometric databases, taking into account financial and other constraints, as well as the specifics of research problems.

The purpose of the study is to make assessment and diagnosis of program documents existed in small towns (by the territory and industry parameters) – monotowns in Russian Federation and Republic of Kazakhstan in the context of improving economic instruments, to ensure their effective functioning. The empirical basis for the analysis were the results of studies conducted as a research and development “Research of features of an integrated socio-economic development of single-industry towns of border areas in the functioning of the single economic space of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus”, carried out by grant funding of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study is based on the use of methods and techniques of logical, systematic, structural and functional, and comparative analysis

In the article the issues of establishing and functioning of the zones with special economic activity conditions are addressed and their impact on the environment in Russia and Kazakhstan is assessed. The relevance of the subject of the research is determined, on the one hand, by a qualitative change in the role of the environmental issues in the system of values of population of the post-soviet countries and, on the other hand, by cumulative increase of the negative impact due to the irrational environmental management. Information about the types of special status zones established in these countries is systematized. The key characteristics of these institutional entities are compared, which includes goals and specifics of their development, implemented organizational mechanisms, measures for support of business activities, offered tax incentives and preferences. The authors demonstrate that the adopted accelerated economic growth strategy within the framework of zones with special status is implemented disregarding the environmental effects of their development, which poses serious threats to self-preservation of the society and environment. Common and country-specific risks of functioning of the zones with special economic activity conditions are justified. Factors contributing to inadequate assessment of the negative impact on the environment of industries, created in SEZ were revealed. It is emphasized that the current legal and regulatory framework of these zones in Russia and Kazakhstan is aimed not at the prevention of environmental threats but at the easing of requirements for entities in the field of environmental management. Finally, conclusion is made about the greening opportunities of development of the zones with special economic activity conditions, a necessity to enhance the environmental legislation and mutual “best practices” adoption opportunities in this field in Russia and Kazakhstan. The empirical basis of the analysis is constituted by the results of the studies carried out within the framework of the research work “Enhancement of the State Regulation Policy of Accelerated Clustering of the Industrial Regions” implemented on the grounds of the grant funding of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

This article proposes an approach to the analysis of the role of universities in the socioeconomic ecosystem of their host city, which makes it possible to pinpoint the specifics of the university city phenomenon in modern Russia. The study uses the theory of functional specialization of complexly organized spatial systems as its underlying methodology. To address specific research questions, methods of comparative, evolutionary and economic-statistical analysis are used. As a result of the study, the authors establish the specifics of the spatial distribution of universities in Europe, the USA and the Russian Federation; and substantiated the choice of Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg as the relevant research sample for the Russian Federation. The article proposes the methodology for assessing the role of universities in the socio-economic space of the city comprising: a set of calculated economic and statistical indicators; analysis of the established practice for deciding if to represent a particular city as a scientific and educational center in strategic management directives; and integral interpretation of the results obtained. The analysis of the leading scientific and educational centers in Russia stated above indicates that in no city the share of the university sector in the overall number of the city’s employees, or its population, reaches 20%–the key threshold for establishing the predominance of universities in the functional the structure of a city. At the same time, the economic dominance of Tomsk universities in their city (the total income of Tomsk universities exceeds the city’s budget, which is unique for Russia) became the basis for positioning the city as the “student capital city” of the country. Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk, which exceed Tomsk in absolute terms, such as number of universities and total number of students studying in the city, lag Tomsk in the sphere of symbolic representation. The article concludes that, due to the specifics of its genesis and evolution, the phenomenon of a university city in Russia receives a new significance, reflecting the diversity of relationships between a large city and a complex, hierarchical system of universities operating in the socio-economic space of a common territory.

The article presents the author's methodology for the formation of a key indicator system for the evaluation of the ecological and economic potential of the metallurgical cluster. This being the case, special attention was paid to the development of an indicator system for evaluating the second-level potentials uniting the environmental and economic components of the integrated study subject. The study aims to develop a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the ecological and economic potential adapted to unique features of the metallurgical cluster of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In preparing the material, the authors used comparative analysis and integral economic and statistical indicator building methods. Individual assessments of the first and second tiers were integrated by calculating criterion integrated indicators. The study concluded that a balanced evaluation of the ecological and economic potential of the metallurgical cluster can be obtained by integrating estimates of second-tier potentials representing the joint influence of a group of enterprises in the metallurgical industrial cluster. The provisions and conclusions of the described paper can be applied by the management of iron and steel companies to justify corporate development programmes, as well as regional authorities to identify areas of investment attractiveness growth of the region. The empirical basis of the analysis was obtained from the results of studies carried out as part of the research work "Improvement of the state policy regulation for accelerated clustering of the industrial regions", executed under grant financing of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.