The Problem of Self-identification of Russians in the 21st Century: Geopolitical and Regional Aspects

The territorial changes that accompanied the process of the collapse of the USSR raised the question of the self-identification of Russians, since it was necessary to determine, both in the geopolitical coordinates of the new sovereign identity of the internationally recognized status of the Russian Federation, and in the regional coordinates of national and historical and cultural spaces. According to sociological studies, a trend has emerged in the self-identification of Russians as a civil nation, where ethnic and confessional identities are gradually fading into the background, giving way to the concept of statehood as a symbol of the unity of a multinational people. In this regard, it is logical to consider the processes of the formation of modern self-identification of Russians in the context of global regionalization, where Russia chooses the vector of development: West-East, North-South. The political and economic foundations for the European regional identification of Russians are clearly being lost, which is associated with the increased tension and obvious hostility in relations with the countries of Europe and with the West in general; well-founded fears of territorial and economic expansion of Asian neighbors (China, Japan) and multi-vector foreign policy of the Central Asian countries weaken the Eurasian regional identification tendencies. In this regard, there is a promising tendency for the northern / arctic self-identification of Russians, which, firstly, is historically associated with the emergence of Russian statehood in the northern regions, and secondly, reflects the important economic and political direction of the development of Russia in the 21st century.