Abstract: Currently, the ethnic and ethnoreligious environment of Bashkiria and Kabardino-Balkaria indicate the growing influence of youth leaders. The results of field studies conducted in the two republics during the 2018-2019 demonstrate that this process is associated with generational change taking place among the Bashkir Islamic clergy and in the Circassian National Movement. The article analyzes the activity of the most successful religious leaders of Bashkiria – Ainur Birgalin and Ainur Arslanov, as well as the key Circassian youth leaders – Martin Kochesoko and Anzor Ashkhot. In the course of field research carried out in Bashkiria (2018) and Kabardino-Balkaria (2018 and 2019), the authors conducted expert interviews with the most prominent ethnic and ethnoreligious youth leaders of both republics. The conclusion is made that success of the leaders relates to the effectiveness of technologies applied for mobilization of the religiously- and ethnocentrically oriented youth. The use of Internet technologies along with other contemporary methods of group mobilization allows the youth leaders to successfully engage the existing ethnoreligious and ethnic institutions or dispute their legitimacy by forming alternative structures.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the methods of foreign policy legitimation of political power in the post-Soviet de facto states. The object of this research is the foreign policy activity of the aforementioned political-territorial entities. Special attention is given to the description and analysis of the political (opening of embassies and representative establishments; creation of alternative international organizations), economic (establishment of economic ties with other countries; participation on international forums and exhibitions), as well as cultural (promotion of brand of the de facto state using the instruments of cultural diplomacy) instruments of the foreign policy legitimation. The topic at hand is insufficiently studied and of practical relevance because the political processes in the de facto states and their further institutionalization strongly affect the relations between countries within the region. The author comes to a conclusion that the presence or absence of a vast foreign diaspora produce substantial impact upon the character and scale of the foreign policy legitimation of political power in the de facto states.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the methods of foreign policy legitimation of political power in the post-Soviet de facto states. The object of this research is the foreign policy activity of the aforementioned political-territorial entities. Special attention is given to the description and analysis of the political (opening of embassies and representative establishments; creation of alternative international organizations), economic (establishment of economic ties with other countries; participation on international forums and exhibitions), as well as cultural (promotion of brand of the de facto state using the instruments of cultural diplomacy) instruments of the foreign policy legitimation. The topic at hand is insufficiently studied and of practical relevance because the political processes in the de facto states and their further institutionalization strongly affect the relations between countries within the region. The author comes to a conclusion that the presence or absence of a vast foreign diaspora produce substantial impact upon the character and scale of the foreign policy legitimation of political power in the de facto states.