SUMMARY:

In this article, Olga Kazmina researches the role of religious factors on ethnic situation in the Russian Federation. Exploring different ethnic groups in Russia, Kazmina argues that religion indeed plays an important role in modern Russia’s ethnopolitics. However, this role is different in each particular group. Monoreligious groups tend to emphasize the religious factor in their group formation, whereas multireligious groups seek other means of consolidation and group maintenance. Kazmina also argues that the recent and controversial law on the freedom of religion passed by the State Duma has hardly been a decisive factor in the complex of religious and ethnic problems of Russia. Rather than federal, local laws are much more important in determining the situation with religious and ethnic groups on the ground. Proposing no single formula for the study of ethnos and religion, the author argues for attentive and elaborate research into every particular ethnic or religious group.