About some aspects of the administrative division of the North Caucasian federal district republics

In the article, the author attempts to identify and analyze some flaws and shortcomings of the national-territorial form of the administrative structure of the national republics of the North Caucasus, which serve as one of the factors of the region's conflict potential. The author substantiates that in the conditions prevailing in the region this principle has outlived its usefulness and needs a serious reassessment. The author sees the main goal of such a reassessment in the gradual abandonment of the ethno-territorial principle to the state-administrative principle common for the entire Russian Federation, and when choosing the top leaders of the legislative and executive bodies of the republican authorities the author suggests switching from ethnic criteria to the criteria of professionalism.