The article reviews the process of transformation of management strategies of politic management elite in the regions of North Caucasus. The scientific analysis is carried out in the context of social conditions of modern value-institutional crisis. The author considers the changes in values of North Caucasus peoples and inner and outer factors that lead to the modification in the character of managing these regions. The article studies the practices of power transition and making an own system of power by new leaders. It deals with such factors influencing the management of regions as increasing the meaning of religion and religious extremism, the meaning of ethnic mobilization strife mechanisms. The influence of these factors is shown on the examples of the Republics of North Ossetia-Alania, Dagestan, Kab ardino Balkaria, Chechnya, Ingushetia. The author examines the possible strategies of how Russian federal authorities may react on conflicts in regional elite and principles of their interaction with regional elite.

Niniejszy artykuł poświęcony jest Republice Kabardo-Bałkarii – jednemu z podmiotów Federacji Rosyjskiej, w którym dwie grupy etniczne mają status narodowości tytularnych. Punkt wyjścia do dalszych rozważań stanowi analiza zjawiska dwutytularności w kontekście specyfiki ustroju Związku Socjalistycznych Republik Radzieckich i Federacji Rosyjskiej. Dalsza część studium poświęcona jest samej Kabardo-Bałkarii, zamieszkiwanej przez dwie zupełnie odmienne w aspekcie kulturowym i językowym grupy etniczne – Kabardyjczyków (należących do superetnosu abchazo-adygejskiego czy też czerkieskiego) oraz tureckich Bałkarów. Przedmiotem rozważań jest wpływ modelu dwutytularnego na charakter reżimu politycznego, relacje międzyetniczne oraz stabilność sytuacji w regionie.

Znaczenie Kaukazu Północnego dla bezpieczeństwa Federacji Rosyjskiej

The article is dedicated to the dilemmas of post-imperial statehood in the context of Russian Federation security, with the particular emphasis on the fundamental alternative: to maintain the polyethnic (quasi-imperial) model of state or to build a nation state. The Author defines the concept of „empire” from the point of view of three determinants: the concentric structure based on center-periphery dichotomy, orientation towards the external mission and imperial idea. From this point of view, Russia is an imperial state (contrary to Tsarist Empire and USSR), neither is a typical nation state. The Author tries to prove that The author tries to demonstrate that the abandonment of federal, multinational state model would be tantamount to the loss of strategically important North Caucasus, which would deprive it of a regional power status. The study contains a multi-faceted exploration of the North Caucasus (which is a highly turbulent region) as a key territory for the global dimension of geostrategy. The Author analyzes potential threats to North Caucasian security and actions taken by Moscow in order to prevent them. He pays attention to the growing popularity of slogans about the necessity of separation of Caucasus and Russia. In his opinion, Caspian-Black Sea Region would become a zone of global destabilization, posing a threat to the world peace.