Between the West and the East: the zigzags of modern Russian politics

The article deals with one of the eternal themes of Russian society and the state - Russia between the West and the East. This problem determines the choice of orientation of domestic and foreign policy, and also determines the "swing" of the Russian political vector. The author notes that the geopolitical position of Russia (at the junction of the West and the East) contributed to the formation of different directions of social and political thought, which played a significant role in the development and implementation of the internal - and foreign policy vector of Russian society and state. The author concentrates on the understanding of the zigzags of modern Russian politics - from the pro-Western course in the early 1990s, which was replaced by a multi-vector approach from the 2000s, analyzing the reasons that influenced the choice of one or another course of development of the country, as well as its change. It is argued that the vision of the future of the Russian Federation, which broadcasts the modern liberal opposition, does not meet the needs, needs of the majority of the population, its national interests, sociocultural traditions, and the ill-considered reforms of the 1990s that had disastrous consequences did not contribute to sup-porting this course. As a result, since the 2000s, the policy of modern Russia has been characterized by a multivector approach and attempts to consolidate the status of an independent center of power, based on the principles of civilizational identity and originality