This title was first published in 2001. This study attempts to present a broad picture of political, economic and social developments in Russia at the start of the 21st century. It provides an overview of the legacy of the Yeltsin era and attempts to outline major limitations and policy choices that Putin is facing. The book contains an in-depth analysis of power stuggles in Russia, the background to Vladimir Putin's rise to presidency, the role of oligarchs and other pressure groups in Russia. There is also a focus on economic, social and financial developments in Russia, with an overview of Russian foreign, military and social policies, as well as looking at its level of development when compared with other countries.

This title was first published in 2001. This study attempts to present a broad picture of political, economic and social developments in Russia at the start of the 21st century. It provides an overview of the legacy of the Yeltsin era and attempts to outline major limitations and policy choices that Putin is facing. The book contains an in-depth analysis of power stuggles in Russia, the background to Vladimir Putin's rise to presidency, the role of oligarchs and other pressure groups in Russia. There is also a focus on economic, social and financial developments in Russia, with an overview of Russian foreign, military and social policies, as well as looking at its level of development when compared with other countries.

This self-contained textbook is an informal introduction to optimization through the use of numerous illustrations and applications. The focus is on analytically solving optimization problems with a finite number of continuous variables. In addition, the authors provide introductions to classical and modern numerical methods of optimization and to dynamic optimization.

The book's overarching point is that most problems may be solved by the direct application of the theorems of Fermat, Lagrange, and Weierstrass. The authors show how the intuition for each of the theoretical results can be supported by simple geometric figures. They include numerous applications through the use of varied classical and practical problems. Even experts may find some of these applications truly surprising.

A basic mathematical knowledge is sufficient to understand the topics covered in this book. More advanced readers, even experts, will be surprised to see how all main results can be grounded on the Fermat-Lagrange theorem. The book can be used for courses on continuous optimization, from introductory to advanced, for any field for which optimization is relevant.