Conflict management in the sphere of Ethnopolitics: Russian Experience

Abstract

© 2017. The necessity of writing the proposed article is caused, firstly, by understanding of complexity and ambiguity of ethno-political processes in Russia which are in a state of relative stability nowadays, but may be in a phase of instability if obey to the logic of "ethno-political pendulum"; secondly, by scientific interest in identifying threats for the country coming from ethno-political sphere which is rife with many conflicts, and by the desire to prevent growing of ethno-political conflicts into destructive forms, threatening the state's security; thirdly, by the desire to find out peculiarities of using strategies of conflict management in Russian ethnopolitical practice; fourthly, by identifying the effectiveness of actions of the subjects of ethno-political conflict management in conflict regulating in the field of ethnicities' coexistence. The results of the author team's work are conclusions that the process of politicization of ethnicity in Russia is suspended nowadays, but ethnopolitical contradictions are saved at the latent level and they threaten to escalate into conflicts of a destructive nature. It is stated that constitutional conflicts between the Federal center and national subjects of the Federation became the most dangerous for post-Soviet Russia: initially, the normative approach was used to regulate them, but, the power approach in managing conflict was used to preserve territorial integrity in the case with "rebellious" Chechnya. It is proved that ethnic discontent expressed in the framework of democratic system is always better than appeal to force, violent solutions to ethno-political problems. As a result of the research, the authors came to the final conclusion that danger of the state's disintegration due to the excessive strengthening of the Federal center and the weakening of the Federal's subjects or vice versa continues to be the potential threat to the Federal state in ethnopolitical sphere.