BALTIC REGION 2018 Volume 10 №4

ISSN 2079-8555 e-ISSN 2310-0524 BALTIC REGION 2018 Volume 10 № 4 Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University Press 2018 1 BALTIC Editorial council REGION Prof. Andrei P. Klemeshev, rector of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Fe- deral University, Russia ( Editor in Chief); Prof. Gennady M. Fedo- 2018 rov, director of the Institute of Environmental Management, Terri- torial Development and Urban Construction, Immanuel Kant Baltic Volume 10 Federal University, Russia (Deputy Chief Editor); Prof. Dr Joachim von Braun, director of the Center for Development Research № 4 (ZEF), Professor, University of Bonn, Germany; Prof. Irina M. Bu- sygina, Department of Comparative Politics, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), Russia; Prof. Ale- Kaliningrad : ksander G. Druzhinin, director of the North Caucasian Research I. Kant Baltic Federal Institute of Economic and Social Problems, Southern Federal Uni- versity, Russia; Prof. Mikhail V. Ilyin, Prof. of the Department of University Press, 2018. Comparative Politics, Moscow State Institute of International Re- 147 р. lations (MGIMO University), Russia; Dr Pertti Joenniemi, senior researcher, Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland, Fin- The journal land; Dr Nikolai V. Kaledin, head of the Department of Regional was established in 2009 Policy & Political Geography, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia (co-chair); Prof. Konstantin K. Khudolei, head of the De- Frequency: partment of European Studies, Faculty of International Relations, quarterly Saint Petersburg State University, Russia; Dr Kari Liuhto, director in the Russian and English of the Pan-European Institute, Turku, Finland; Prof. Vladimir A. Ko- languages per year losov, head of the Laboratory for Geopolitical Studies, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences; Prof. Gennady V. Kre- Founders tinin, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Russia; Prof. Vla- dimir A. Mau, rector, Russian Presidential Academy of National Immanuel Kant Baltic Economy and Public Administration, Russia; Prof. Andrei Yu. Mel- Federal University ville, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Russia; Prof. Nikolai Saint Petersburg M. Mezhevich, Department of European Studies, Faculty of Interna- State University tional Relations, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia; Prof. Tadeusz Palmowski, head of the Department of Regional Develop- Editorial Office ment, University of Gdansk, Poland; Prof. Andrei E. Shastitko, head of the Department of Competitive and Industrial Policy, Moscow Address: State University, Russia; Prof. Aleksander A. Sergunin, Department 2 Zoologicheskaya St., of History and Theory of International Relations, Saint Petersburg Kaliningrad, 236000, Russia State University, Russia; Prof. Eduardas Spiriajevas, head of the Cen- tre of Transborder Studies, Klaipeda University (Lithuania); Prof. Managing editor: Daniela Szymańska, head of the Department of Urban Studies and Tatyana Kuznetsova Regional Development, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, tikuznetsova@kantiana.ru Poland; Dr Viktor V. Voronov, Leading Research Fellow, Institute Tel.: +7 4012 59-55-43 of Social Studies, Daugavpils University, Latvia. Fax: +7 4012 46-63-13 www.journals.kantiana.ru The opinions expressed in the articles are private opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the founders of the journal © I. Kant Baltic Federal University, 2018 2 Ä. Ç. äÛÁÌÂˆÓ‚, Ç. Ä. éÎÂÌ˜ÂÌÍÓ CONTENTS Information technology Blanutsa V. I. The effect of cross-border fibre-optic transitions on the information and communication connectivity of the Russian cities ................. 4 Kirilenko V. P., Alexeyev G. V. Political technologies and international con- flicts in the information space of the Baltic Sea region ................................. 20 Legal issues Volchetskaya T. S., Cholopova E. N., Grigoriev A. G. A functional descrip- tion of the model for the protection of the environmental interests of the Russian Federation in the Baltic Sea region .................................................. 39 Smorgunova V. Yu., Dorskaia A. A., Tolstukhina T. V. Legal regime for church property in Russia and the Baltic states ............................................. 60 Nilov K. N. The special economic zone in the Kaliningrad region: towards a more effective legal regime ........................................................................ 74 Social and economic development Voronov V. V., Ruza O. P. Youth unemployment in the Latgale region of Latvia: causes and consequences .................................................................. 88 Stepanova S. V., Shlapeko E. A. Trends in the development of cross-border trade in the Russian-Finnish borderlands ...................................................... 103 Kostyashov Yu. V., Sergeev V. V. Regional politics of memory in Poland’s Warmia and Masuria ..................................................................................... 118 Discussion Gutorov V. A., Shirinyants A. A., Shutov A. Yu. Two civilizations: the relations of Russia and Western Europe at the beginning of the 21st century ....... 132 Review Russia in the system of international relations: a new perspective (Yu. S. Kuz- min) ............................................................................................................... 142 Baltiс Region. 2018. Vol. 10, № 4 / ISSN 2079-8555, e-ISSN 2310-0524 3 Information technology INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY The Russian cities are connected by THE EFFECT many telecommunication lines. The infor- OF CROSS-BORDER mation flow between any two cities can be FIBRE-OPTIC sent via multiple routes, including those running through the networks of other coun- TRANSITIONS tries. Cross-border transitions are created ON THE INFORMATION to connect the Russian lines with the international networks. The effect of these transi- AND COMMUNICATION tions on the connectivity of the cities has not CONNECTIVITY been analysed earlier, either for Russia or OF THE RUSSIAN CITIES for any other country. Using my own data- base on the Russian telecommunication lines, the Rosstat data on the cities’ populati- on, and the results of the scanning of the In- 1 ternet topology, I attempt to assess the effect V. I. Blanutsa of these transitions on the connectivity of the Russian cities. The assessment is carried out at the physical, economic, and digital le- vels of connectivity. For each level, I calcu- late the proportion of cities and their resi- dents interacting directly with international telecommunication networks. Of the three categories of physical connectivity, the system of the Russian cities is associated with the worst option — the exogenous connectivity. This is explained by the impossibility of connecting the Kaliningrad region with mainland Russia without using international networks. An analysis of the traffic redistri- bution between the core cities of the autonomous systems shows that closed flows and internal economic connectivity are predomi- nant in Russia. The calculation of information flow delays between all the Russian cities and the cores of the national and international digital agglomerations makes it possible to establish what cities are affected by the international cores. I conclude that ¹ V. B. Sochava Institute of Geography, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy the cross-border transitions have little effect of Sciences, on the information and communication con- 1 Ulan-Batorskaya St., nectivity of the Russian cities. Irkutsk, 664033, Russia. Keywords: information and communica- Submitted on June 01, 2018 tion connectivity, cross-border transition, doi: 10.5922/2079-8555-2018-4-1 telecommunications line, autonomous system, digital urban agglomeration, Russian Fe- © Blanutsa V. I., 2018 deration 4B altiс Region. 2018. Vol. 10, № 4. Р. 4—19. V. I. Blanutsa Introduction For any state, the connectivity of the socioeconomic objects operating on its territory is a major priority. This connectivity is obtained by creat- ing transport and information and communications infrastructure equip- ped with transfer systems and control units. In a broad sense, socio-economic connectivity is the possibility for a rapid movement of energy, raw materials, goods, people, and information between each pair of spatially distributed objects. The disruption of connectivity may be viewed as a precursor of the disintegration and collapse of a state. In this article, we focus solely on the information and communications connectivity, na- mely, the possibility to link two objects for the transmission of information (data, sound, images) along telecommunications lines. In this case, the object may be a person, a robot (the Internet of Things), an organisa- tion, a city, a region, or a country. Below, we analyse only the connectivity of the Russian cities, which numbered 1112 as of January 1, 2017, according to Rosstat.1 The connectivity of the cities within one country can be supported by both domestic and international telecommunications lines. Each large state strives to control its connectivity, particularly, in order to minimise the number of domestic information flows that use the international lines. However, the geographic position, the settlement systems, and the telecommunications network configurations affect the ratio between the domestic and international lines. To understand this ratio, it is important to know the location of the junctions between these lines, the so-called

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