“…For this reason, among others, I prefer to use in this article the term "part of the domain of the Rurikids", which, in my opinion, better illustrates this specific case 52 . Over the past two decades, other researchers (including Jonathan Shepard) have shown that princes such as Mstislav Vladimirovich or Oleg Sviatoslavovich exercised and maintained power over the Kerch Strait due to two factors: the support of the Byzantine emperors and understanding of the local cultural conditions 53 . This was manifested, for example, in the titulature they used on their seals 54 .…”