The quality of state budget planning and implementation process is directly connected with issues of management of foreign state debt and foreign financial assets. The article analyzes legal regulation of foreign debt management issues in Russia, the structure of its public debt and debt of foreign states to Russia. Possible schemes of debt restructuring including write-off, buy-back, several types of conversion and securitization are described. Principles of foreign debt settlement and Russia's participation in the Paris Club are presented. The article also deals with practical problems of settlement of foreign debts owed to Russia.

     From the point of view of the EU enlargement in 2004 the article considers selected aspects of Germany participation in international competition of economic environment. It summarizes the results of transformation of Eastern Germany economy and estimates the potential of this region in competition with the new EU members - CEE countries. The article concludes by making some corrections of existing assessments of market transformation in post-Soviet countries, including Russia.

     The article analyses currency structure of the international economic relations in the beginning of the 21st century. The author focuses on the changes that have happened in these relations after the introduction of the single European currency. On the basis of data available on the use of the main world currencies by non-residents the article draws a conclusion about a recent significant diversification in the structure of the currency portfolio of the world economy.

     This paper examines the link between organizational culture and effectiveness for foreign-owned firms operating in Russia. Beginning with a model of organizational culture developed in the United States, the paper presents a multimethod analysis of culture and effectiveness in a transition economy. The authors argue that effectiveness in Russia relies more on adaptability and flexibility than it does in the United States. Furthermore, the legacy of the communist era forces firms in Russia to deal with the workforce with a unique time perspective and a unique set of subcultures that often undermine attempts at coordination and integration. These ideas are explored using survey data on 179 foreign-owned firms operating in Russia and compared with the results obtained for such firms in the United States.

     The paper considers sociocultural processes caused by globalization and integration. The authors conclude that the present effective form of economic organization is the clusterization of economy. These clusters appear to be an effective emergental association of branch structures, forming a competitive economic unit. The competitiveness of clustered economy is proved by the experience of Finland - the most competitive country in the world economy. The prospects of clusterization in Russia are examined.

     The article reflects the most important issues of the theory of cooperation within the context of the civilizational paradigm of development. Stemming from understanding of the historically determined place of cooperative enterprises of producers, the article gives a new perspective of their genesis, branch specifics, formal organization, functional space, institutional quality. Advocates of absolutization of cooperative forms in the field of social production are criticized.

     The article discusses the problems of GDP measurement in the CIS countries: measuring shadow and informal economy; treatment of inflation; impact of changes in the organization of economy on the size and rates of GDP growth. The issue of possible degree of accuracy of calculation of GDP is discussed. Some directions of the analysis of GDP data are presented as well as the links between GDP and other macroeconomic indicators.

     The perspectives of information society in Russia are considered in the article. The author examines Russia's ICT sector paying special attention to PC and Internet penetration. Russia's foreign trade with ICT goods (mainly offshore programming) is also analyzed. The author points out that the Russian Government $2.6-bln. program "Electronic Russia (2002-2010)" is the necessary but not sufficient instrument to build information society. Russia's ICT sector needs domestic and foreign investments.

     Legal basis and development of systems of electronic state purchases in Russia with special attention to the federal target program "Electronic Russia (2002-2010)" are considered in the article. The level of development of such systems is examined within the case of their functioning in the Ural-Siberian region. The results of the work of state purchases e-market in Novosibirsk and Chelyabinsk are presented.

     Liberalization and privatization of Russia's economy have led to formation of not civilized but peripheral capitalism called to serve the developed countries. That's the cause of one-sided raw material orientation of Russia's economy and also of massive outflow of capital. In connection with the absence of investment sources of economic growth the author doubts the official data of the Ministriy of Economic Development and Trade of the RF. Generalizing historical experience of Russia's development in XX century, analyzing current situation through the prism of this experience he comes to the conclusion about the inability of present-day Russian private capital to modernize national economy.