The paper presents the results of using the cognitive mapping method to analyze the messages from video bloggers which were popular among Russian youth and covered protest actions in Russia in 2019-2020. The cognitive mapping method has not previously been used to interpret the information messages of representatives of the protest movement in modern Russia. The objective of the study is to identify the value systems, priorities, individual logical chains of opinion leaders in the Russian language segment of YouTube video hosting. The research sample was based on a two-step model, including the selection of 20 video bloggers who are considered to be the most popular among Russian protest youth as well as the selection of information materials for further analysis. For each leader of public opinion, several cognitive maps were built regarding the coverage of protest actions in 3 cases (the protests in Yekaterinburg in 2019, in Moscow after the Moscow City Duma elections in 2019 and in Khabarovsk in 2020). The cognitive mapping method made it possible to analyze the perception and interpretation of the protest actions taken by public opinion leaders who are opposed to the ruling party. The results of cognitive mapping reveal the value systems of the interpreters of political events who are popular among young people. The system of values, expressed in the interpretation of protest actions, presupposes the dominance of liberal guidelines, ideas of the rule of law and civil society.

The article presents the results of a study of the characteristics of modern institutions created by the United Nations (UN) in the framework of the direction of activities on digital cooperation. The methodological basis of the research is constructivism as one of the approaches to the study of international relations. The creation of international institutions for digital development can be explained within the framework of the constructivist approach as a manifestation of the priority of values and standards as well as adherence to the logic of public good and societal benefit. For the first time in scientific literature, an analysis of institutions such as the Global Forum on Internet Governance and the UN Secretary General’s High Level Group on Digital Cooperation is presented. The implementation of initiatives for the creation of international institutions considered, and the choice of their institutional design, became possible only with the support of the governments of Member States. The institutional infrastructure that is created significantly increases the oppor- tunities for non-state actors to participate in global politics and exercise direct influence on the UN. The process of preparing the UN Roadmap for Digital Cooperation was accompanied by the creation of unprecedented institutional forms that allowed for the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders. The digital revolution and the subsequent rapidity of communications and transfor- mation of forms of interaction cause and facilitate the new institutional forms and necessitate the developmental policy reforms. The algorithm for discussing the report of the High-Level Group, which ensures a balanced and diversified participation of state and non-state actors in the preparation of international recommendations, is particularly innovative.

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The article examines the methodological possibilities of reinforcement theory in the field of studying the influence of Internet technologies on political behavior. The prospects of the theory of reinforcement are considered in the context of the changing role of Internet technologies in the political process since the beginning of the 2010s and the growing popularity of competing methodological directions, first of all, the theory of mobilization. It is revealed that the rivalry between the theory of reinforcement and the theory of mobilization at the present stage turns into a state of methodological dualism. Reinforcement theory not only retained its significance in the context of the growth of political mobilization in the period of the 2010s, but also received further development: the new concept of selective avoidance supplemented its theoretical apparatus. Reinforcement theory retains its significance for the study of political leadership among Russian youth, the activities of radical youth organizations. One of the factors in preserving the methodological potential of reinforcement theory in the study of the political activism of Russian youth is the practical combination of its principles with the network approach.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant transformations of electoral institutions, and provoked changes in the politics of electoral reforms in some polities. The paper claims that Russia has used a special model of electoral reform during the pandemic that differs from both its previous experience and recommendations of international organizations. The comparative historical method is applied to bridge internal and external explanations that may offer an understanding of the current reform of electoral rule in the Russian political context. The pandemic has become a reason for changing traditional electoral procedures and for implementing this reform. Empirical evidence suggests that the reform has been implemented by a depoliticized technocratic procedure ignoring the principles of political consensus. The reform process implies a shift of the government’s main efforts from decision-making to increasing dependence on propaganda, and informational confrontation with opponents in the subsequent reform cycle. The approach to the implementation of the electoral reform casts doubt on the level of public support for the new procedures and exacerbates political risks.