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The process of nation-building in modern societies within the framework of national integration is considered in the article from different approaches and taking into consideration analysis and understanding of foreign experience. Special attention is paid to the concepts and views of Francis Fukuyama and Robert Cooper along with their importance for practice of nation-building. An inference is made that today these concepts and attempts to implement them in practice cannot be recognized as perfect and adequate to current challenges of internal and external origins.

The article considers the problem of the stages of evolution and the main trends in the functioning of the foreign policy mechanism of the Russian Federation. The degree of influence of specific elements of the mechanism of formation and implementation of Russian foreign policy from 1991 up to the present has been characterized. It was shown that in 2000-2008 certain changes took place in the system of the state foreign policy mechanism, which were due to the specifics of the leadership style of the incumbent President and his team.

The processes of development of civil society in Crimea after the entry of the peninsula into the Russian Federation in March 2014 are analyzed. The authors conclude that in recent years it has developed and passed from inertia to a state of civic activity. However, an integral system of civil structures has not yet been formed.

The article analyzes the influence of ethnic factor in the post-Soviet space using the example of the Saratov region. On the basis of a public survey conducted in eight districts of the region, the activities of national and cultural organizations as subjects of civil society and the regional political process are considered. Their interaction with the authorities, difficulties, and contradictions arising in the process of implementing the programs and goals of national and cultural organizations are studied.