Since 1999 studies are conducted of specific form of corruption known as ‘state capture’. This term refers to a situation in which individual agents and groups of interests are seeking to shape and affect the process of formulating regulations to their advantage through illicit and non-transparent means. In other words, state capture is an attempt of a group of interest to change institutionalized rules of the market game in a way favorable for them in order to gain political rents. This paper is a reconstruction of economic studies on phenomenon of state capture. The first part of paper is devoted to presentation of state capture in context of other forms of corruption. It focuses mainly on series of survey studies known as Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) conducted by World Bank and EBRD. The second part of the paper is a critical analysis of state capture conception and methodology. The text points out limitations of economical research procedures in domain of corruption analysis. Methodological difficulties and restrictions of conception of state capture are discussed on an example of chosen political affair – Buchacz triangle. The paper ends with sociological reinterpretation of conception of state capture.

Jesus has definitely conquered the world, but our history is continuous. The one who is called in the Bible as the Devil, Satan, and Deceiver of all the earth (cf. Rev 12:9), though already defeated, is still at work in the world. The essence of Satan’s action is to pretend that he is the true Savior of man. In Revelation 13 there is a dragon (the devil) that summons
the first beast and the second beast (a false prophet) and thus they form the diabolical triad. The well-known saying that the devil is simia Dei could be paraphrased and at the same time clarified that the devil is simia Trinitatis. In fact, Satan imitates and mocks, like the monkey, the Holy Trinity to deceive people. When tempting Jesus in the desert, the goal of the evil spirit was not only to tempt Jesus, the Incarnate Son, but the Trinity as a whole. The devil tries to challenge the Trinitarian relations, i.e., the mutual relationship of the Son and the Father in the Holy Spirit. This is the reason why Jesus defies the attacks of the devil not referring to His Divinity but by pointing to the Father and His will. The juxtaposition of the dynamics of the action of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with the dynamics of the action of the triad, the dragon and his two beasts, allows us to capture the essential features of, on the one hand, the community in the Trinity, and on the other hand, the corrupt synergy of the triad assigning the Divine features to themselves.

This paper makes a contribution to food research and studies of mobility through analyzing food exchange in a translocal context. Furthermore, by focusing on Muslim women’s practices in the North Caucasus it also contributes to gender studies of post-socialism, which, for the most part, are based on the field material from the non-Muslim part of the Russian population. Anthropologists have viewed social changes through the lens of various food items or consumption patterns. I argue that adding a mobility aspect to the research centered on food can help us discover social changes and practices that may otherwise remain unnoticed. I will show that studying the dynamics of food circulation and human mobility may serve as a good starting point towards the broader study of societies. Thus, by taking people originating from the Shiri village in Daghestan as an example, I look into channels of food sharing to analyze the nature of reproduction of social relations within communities and the cultural entanglements created by the circulation of goods. Furthermore, the analysis of their vernacular practices reveals the existence of informal exchange networks, in particular the ones secured by and for women. Through these networks, food and favors are exchanged, and social bonds and feelings of obligation are created and preserved. Further analysis also reveals social changes connected with mountain abandonment, in particular the growing awareness of the weakening of tukhum (lineage) and village ties. These dynamics reflect recent changes in the Daghestani society that are connected with increased mobility and the processes of (re)islamization.