The article analyzes the Russian higher education system as an essential part of the “soft power” of Russia’s foreign policy. A comparison is made of the youth potential contingents in the CIS countries in the context of demographic aging. The role of Rossotrudnichestvo in the policy of the Russian language spreading in the post-Soviet space is considered. The authors conclude that Russia is interested in attracting foreign youth to Russian universities and claim the lack of an adequate state policy; they suggest measures to radically change the situation with foreign students’ education in Russian universities.

Within the framework of solving complex interstate problems the traditional diplomatic actions and military operations today are being replaced by indirect actions technologies that undermine rival state from inside. In the political and political science literature such actions and based on them policies are called “soft power”, which is discussed in the article.