Administrative emphases of regional programs on implementation of the ethnic policy (the case study of the Far East)

Introduction: the objective of this article is to identify the emphases of regional models of administering issues of the state ethnic policy of Russia in the Far East through the analysis of specialized regional programs. The author's vision of ethnic policy is given, which takes into account the political and administrative aspects, as well as the binary nature of nation-building in contemporary Russia. Materials and Methods: the targeted programs of the Far Eastern regions (with the exception of Maritime Territory, where a specialized program in the field of ethnic policy is not adopted, as of 2017) became the materials for the study. They address the issues in the sphere of the state ethnic policy of Russia. To achieve the objective set out in the article, political and legal analysis was chosen with a focus on meaningful content-analysis of regulatory documents. Results: the article presents an in-depth analysis of the specialized programs in the Far Eastern regions, where important parameters such as identification of the level of interethnic relations, the purpose, main tasks, activities and indicators of the program are supplemented by the assessmerit of the action plan and the features of its funding. These parameters allow to identify unique administrative emphases in the implementation of the ethnic policy at the regional level. On the basis of comparative studies, it was identified that, despite the fact that the objectives of the regional programs correspond with the goals and objectives established by the Strat­egy of state ethnic policy of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025, each Far Eastern region builds its administrative system according to regional needs and capabilities (mostly the financial ones). Discussion and Conclusions: the emphases and implementation of the ethnic policy in the regions are unique which allows to make a conclusion about the presence of decentralization in addressing issues of ethnic policy and the existence of regional ethnic policies. Analysis of the emphases of goal setting, activities, and their financial support revealed that five program models of administration in the sphere of ethnic policy were implemented in the Far East. However, in order to identify their relevance, the issue of conducting a study on the ratio between the program models and regional ethno-social processes was raised.