The reflection of geographical factors in the formation and functioning of federal system, territorial representation, party and electoral systems of theUnited Statesare observed. Evidences indicating the important role of geographic features in the country’s political system are found. Particular attention of American establishment to geographical regularities of organizing political life is traced. The value of the federal system as a key element of the spatial organization of a democratic form of government in theUnited Statesis explored. Reflection of geographic differences in functioning of the electoral system is found. The importance of the Electoral College as an institution aimed at achieving greater territorial cohesion of the state is investigated. The role of majority voting in single-mandate constituencies as an element of territorial representation is analyzed. Special attention is paid to geographical principles in formation of administrative division of the country. The interrelation of the organization of territorial representation in theUnited Statesand the formation of a two-party political system is investigated. The territorial features of parties functioning and regional factors of intraparty differentiation of political views are characterized. It is concluded that there is a deep integration of elements of geographical knowledge and approaches of geographical science into political and electoral systems of theUnited States. The importance of these elements as factors of the territorial stability of theU.S.political model is stated. 

The article is devoted to the actual theme of modern urban science – the multiculturalism of the city. Author asks the question how the cosmopolitan cities of the past, where there were no modern institutions, developed civic society, public administration and services, and police units, could manage without conflict by the coexistence of the groups, characterized by different ethnic and cultural identities. To understand the everyday practice of the multiculturalism at the time, the cases of medievalCordobaand Ottoman’sConstantinoplehave been analyzed. The author resumes that there are two key factors impacting the policy in the chosen cities: 1) the practical necessity of intercultural contacts that is “forced” to tolerance, and 2) the development of the common market of theMediterranean. Sensitivity of the cosmopolitan cities to geopolitical context is pointed out. Integrated under the conditions of a strong state and growing economy, when wealth, status and power motivate peoples to integrate, these cities lose this ability as their geopolitical position weakens. Cosmopolitanism ensures the city’s participation in global processes, but sustainable development depends rather on local factors. To conclude, the author emphasizes that in actual conditions, when the “needs” in multiculturalism as some kind of “compulsion” are missing, cosmopolitanism erodes the local social capital and paradoxically generates not tolerance, but the demand for increase of control. 

Space is one of the key concepts of geography, but it is almost not investigated by Russian geographers in ontological and epistemological terms. Over the last century in the foreign geography the idea of space was varied from purely Newtonian (as a passive receptacle, by E. Tobler) through the humanitarian perception (Yi-Fu Tuan) to “production of space” by society (as a “second reality”, by H. Lefebvre). In the second half of the 21th century M. Foucault declared the need to put the Space at the front end of modern science and to abandon the primacy of gnoseological historicism. In the second half of the 21th century M. Foucault declared the need to put the Space at the central place of modern science and to abandon the primacy of gnoseological historicism. After that, social sciences allied with geography began to actively explore the concept of space, but more often as a metaphor, ignoring the real role of geographical space in social processes. The reaction of professional geographers on this metaphor forces itself to wait. In the geography, the epistemology of space becomes more complicated. The division of space through traditional zoning is complemented (or disputed) by two other approaches – the geostructural approach and the concept of places. Calls appear to liberate geography from too tight binding to the view on the space as the central idea of geography (Barnes). The fruitfulness of these calls has to reflect on from the point of view of prospects of development of theoretical geography. 

The article considers the problems of practical application of categories of the “characteristic time” and “characteristic space” in methodology of geography and biogeography. It is shown that some anthropocentric methods hinder an understanding of the essence of study of the evolution and the dynamics of spatial biogeographical objects at different levels of identification – from biotic kingdoms and provinces to landscapes and facies. Examples of the relationship between natural and anthropogenic сhronoand chorological parameters of biotic objects at the lowest level of analysis (the landscape of the Valdai upland) are presented. It is discussed how these categories are used in practice of territorial protection of nature. 

In the paper the spatial and temporal changes of summer temperatures in Western Siberia during the period of 1951–2012 were investigated using observations data on weather stations. It was shown that the spatially inhomogeneous summer warming was observed in the study region. Warming rates declined at the end of 20th – beginning of 21st centuries. The uncertainty associates with a possible change of direction of change in summer temperatures and the formation of a stable trend of warming slowdown. It was revealed that despite the slowdown in warming, the northwestern part of the Altai krai is the most vulnerable area of increased risk of hazardous hydrometeorological events associated with the long periods of abnormally hot weather in summer. Variations of atmospheric circulation indices associated with the weakening/strengthening of zonal transport significantly contribute to the fluctuations in summer temperatures in the north of Western Siberia. The main surface temperature anomalies in summer in the south of Western Siberia are linked to the Eastern Atlantic-Western Russia (EAWR) pattern and Scandinavia pattern. The negative phase of the EAWR and Scand indices reflects major blocking anticyclones and above-average temperatures in Western Siberia. 

The article analyzes the spatial-temporal characteristics of dissolved organic matter (DOM), pH, and salinity (∑m) natural river water of provinces and countries of mountains with forest-grassland types of the vertical zoning of the CIS. The work is based on the results of many years experimental studies and observations in the network of hydrometeorological service. The reaction of river water of forest-meadow mountains during the year is neutral and slightly alkaline, in a few provinces it is weak-acid and alkaline, and in the Amur-Primorye country it is slightly acidic and neutral. The salinity of the water changes dramatically from very low in the Amur-Primorye country, Pribaikalia and Transbaikalia (40–100 mg/ dm³ ), small in the Alpine-Carpathian country and in the Altai-Sayan mountains (120–200 mg/dm³ ) to the average values (200–400 mg/dm³ ) on the rest of the territory. The color of river water varies from small (15–20°) in the mountains of Western and Central Asian types of zoning to average values (30–45^o ) in the mountains of Central and Far Eastern types of zoning. The magnitude of the permanganate oxidizability of water ranges from small (4–5 mg/dm³ ) to the average (7–8 mg/dm3 ), the bichromate oxidizability has mostly average values (14–20 mg/dm³ ); for forest-meadow mountains of the CIS they are equal to 7 and 18 mg/dm3 , PO/BO – 41%, DOM/∑m – 10%. Extreme average concentrations of humic (HA) and fulvic (FA) acids in the water of the rivers of forest-meadow mountains vary from 0.005–0.035 in winter and 0.015–0.055 in summer low-water periods up to 0.090–0.230 mg/dm³ of carbon in high water, FA – respectively from 0.150–0.350 and 0.460–0.620 to 0.930–1.29 mg/dm³ . Hydrochemical zoning of river water is developed very well in mountains with forest-grassland types of vertical zoning with optimally formed geomorphological and landscape storeyed structure.

The synchronous data on daily, seasonal and annual course of air and soil temperature for various types of vegetation on left and right banks of the Oka River (on its middle course) are collected for the first time. It is shown, that contrast range of hydrothermal conditions in a place of growth of meadow-steppe vegetation sharply differs from characteristic conditions of the surrounding forest landscapes. It is found that the temperature background of Doly tract in Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve is more similar to steppe conditions, which is why the steppe associations have found comfortable conditions here and are developed successfully. 

During the period 1991–2010 the annual flow of the Kura River at its mouth (Salyan) had decreased by 50% or 13.4 km³ compared to its many years average value. During this period annual flow of main tributary of Kura, the Aras River at its mouth (Saatli) had decreased by 54% or 4.95 km³. Significant reduction of the monthly flow of Kura River also was observed during 1980–2010. Main reason of reduction of flow of these rivers is the increase of water abstraction level and modern climate changes in region. Total river flow to the Caspian Sea from the territory of Azerbaijan during 1991–2010 together with water flow entering through the acting collector drainage network in average makes 18.7 km³ annually. Consequently total reduction of the river flow to the Caspian Sea mak es 12.2 km³ annually. 

The processes of development and transformation zones of the wind upwelling in the north-western Black Sea and off the coast of Crimea in the warm season (May-October) are analyzed on the basis of many years data on wind field and the water surface temperature, satellite observations and results of numerical simulation. The presence of seven of the upwelling zones is confirmed, each of which is characterized by a specific spatial-temporal variability of the surface temperature of the water. Coastal upwelling accompanied by lowering the temperature by more than 5 .C in 12 hours most often is observed in the north-western Black Sea (on average 3–4 cases per warm season). Off the southern coast of Crimea upwelling of this type is observed 1–2 times per season. The greatest number of upwellings is recorded in June. Over the past 30 years due to the weakening of the wind, the total number of cases of the wind upwelling in the northwestern part of the Black Sea decreased by about 23%, and in the south-western coast of the Crimea is almost three times. In principle, this favors the development of recreational infrastructure in the region. However, reducing the frequency of occurrence of upwelling is accompanied by a significant increase in temperature of the surface layer in the warm season that leads to an aggravation of the vertical density gradients in the upper layer of the sea and can cause eutrophication of coastal surface waters and near-bottom hypoxia. A rare case of lowering the temperature, covering the entire north-western part of the Black Sea and the coastal areas of the Crimea was analyzed. This example shows that in some areas the horizontal advection (not upwelling) can serve as the main reason for the sharp drop in temperature of the upper layer of the coastal part of the sea. 

The article is devoted to the study of social representations about Abkhazian and South Ossetian sections of the border of the Russian Federation through the analysis of relevant discourse that is formed by Nezavisimaya Gazeta. The study was based on a database of publications collected during the continuous content analysis of edition in three periods: 1994–1995, 2000–2003 and 2008–2012. The unclear legal status of the disputed segments of the border determines the multiplicity of approaches to their perception. Four basic images of border corresponding to four scale levels of discourse are identified: the border of Russia and Abkhazia/South Ossetia, the border of Russia and Georgia, the border of Russia and the West, the border of North and South Caucasus. Different levels of discourse can reflect different points of view on the conflict (Russian, Georgian, Abkhazian/South Ossetian), differ by the nature of spatial perception of border (line or stripe), etc. Each segment of the discourse has its own set of nodal motifs. Some of the motifs act as “vertical” (cross-cutting) in a modified form participating in the formation of discourse at each level (integration of Russia and South Ossetia – annexation of South Ossetia by Russia – struggle between Russia and the West for influence in the South Caucasus – preservation of the unity of the Caucasian region). This ensures the interconnection of images, the unity and structuring entire studied discourse. 

Russia has huge areas of natural landscape little changed by people and therefore may become a global environmental donor to save the biosphere on the planet. The concentration of population in urban agglomerations, thinly populated territories and absent of roads in the former rural areas, the vastness of military ranges, covered with forests and steppes, the savagery of the landscape along the administrative borders are conducive to transformation of the most part of Russia into nature reserves and parks, and preservation of nature in the hunting and fishing grounds for ecological land and nature use. Ecological specialization and the recreational role of suburban zone of Oecumenepolis could become a priority direction in Russia and provide it a unique indispensable place in the world community. The article presents the arguments in favor of this decision. 

The article discusses the development of investigations on environmental geochemistry in Armenia: from creation of mono-elemental geochemical maps up to studying the problems of environmental pollution and the resulting risk to human health. The main stages of formation of geochemical studies, decisions of relevant applied problems on the basis of interdisciplinary research of territory, and the synthesizing role of geography are described. 

The article presents the retrospective historical analysis of the development of fisheries in the Black Sea in Russia since the fall of the Crimean khanate in 1783 to 1917 and analyzes the structure and species composition of commercial biological resources of the Black Sea. The geography, catch composition, scale and fishing methods during spontaneous (consumer-oriented) fisheries were investigated. The comparative analysis of its quantitative and qualitative characteristics in the main fishing areas of the northern Black Sea and off the Caucasian coast was carried out. It was noted that by the end of the 19th century the annual Russian catch in the Black Sea reached up to 40000 tons of valuable fish species (mackerel, sturgeons, herring, mullets, surmullet). By 1914, due to absence of fishery regulation the total annual catch fell down to 10000 tons. At the same time, fisheries of the “low-value” species began to develop along the entire Crimean coast. In 1906–1913, extraction of anchovy came in first place by catch weight among all fishery types. 

The 110^th anniversary